Rise of the Guardians of the Galaxy (a Big Four Story)
by LairdStewart98
Summary: A thief, a thug, an assassin and a maniac. A group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop the plans of a madman that threatens to end the world as they know it. guardians of the galaxy AU
1. Chapter 1

**Who?**

* * *

Eastern Kingdom- Moragia (maw-RA-jee-ah)

The night was blackened from ash, the earth itself stained black, buildings lay in ruins, torn apart by fire and the elemendts, there was no life to to be found here.  
Except for one ship, the Crescent Moon.

Its body a sleek silver and blue, it flew with great speed, and an element of skill not found in a common pilot. Touching down on the charred ground a figure emerged. A strange figure.

It was a young man, in his early twenties at most. He wore a blue hoodie, tinged with white, as if it had been left lying in the snow. His trousers were brown, his feet were bare, but the strangest thing about him was his hair. It was white as snow.

He carried an unremarkable wooden staff around which resembled a shepherds crook. Spinning it as he walked, the man hummed and, like magic, frost and ice curled out from underneath his feet like spiderweb.

The hooded figure looked as if he were looking for something, that much was apparent, he sped up and down the ravaged streets checking in every ruin he could find. He eventually settled in front of a large temple, it giant, majestic architecture having left it surprisingly intact. The figure tried to open the doors, to avail.  
He sighed, he didn't want to damge the city anymore that it already was, but he had a job to do. He raised his staff, and a blast of what looked like blue lightning shot from the tip, striking the old wooden with freezing cold ice. The doors broke almost immediately.

Smiling to himself, the man strolled through the now obliterated doorway and into the temple's main hall. There rested his prize.

Resting upon a pedestal was a small orb. It was small, about the size of an grapefruit, crafted from a silver metal, decorated with intricate patterns of a language long lost. The man didn't know much about the orb, only that selling it to his buyer would make him rich. He plucked the orb from its stand. It was heavier than he had thought, and he could sense a hum of powerful emanating from it. It was enough to make the hairs on his arms stand on end.

"Don't move!" yelled a voice from behind him.

He turned to face a man, perhaps a little older than himself. He was clad in dull metallic armour which included a horned helmet. His face was scarred, three identical marks (maybe claw-marks) drew down his face. The most unsettling thing about him though was his eyes, they were a dark brown and almost a manic gleam to them. And he had an axe pointed at him.

"Drop the orb" he yelled, bringing him back to attention "NOW!"

The hooded man drop the orb like was hot coal "Okay! Okay! No problem (Another one of the axe-wielding man's men jabbed him in the side of the head with a crossbow) at all!"

"Who are you and what are you doing here with the orb?" the horned man demanded "Look man, I'm just a scrounger" the hooded man lied, "I came across the place hoping to make some money, okay"

The deranged axe man wasn't discouraged "Come with us!" he barked "Drago's gonna want to ask you questions"

He turned away from the "scrounger", motioning his goons to grab him. "Wait, wait!" the man in the hoodie called "there's a name you might know me by!"

The axe man turned backed to him expectantly. "Jack Frost"

The axe man stared at him looking dumb as an ox, "Who?"

The white-haired man seemed to take offense to this "Come on man, Jack Frost, legendary outlaw?" The horned man shook head in confusion, "Guys?" "Jack" gestured to the two goons, they too shook their heads.

"Aw forget it"

Jack slammed the base of his staff into the floor, sending everyone flying off their feet with a blast of freezing cold wind. Holding on to the staff with all his strength, Jack lifted himself into the air and shot off and out of the building with the speed of a jet.

"After him!" yelled the axe man, who had just managed to scrape himself off the floor.

* * *

Jack landed rather gracelessly (ie. on his face) next to his ship and clambered inside. As he rose into the air, a beam of fire just narrowly missed one its wings.

"Crap" Jack muttered to himself, the thugs must have caught up to him.

Jack spun his ship away from the beam, however the group below must have assembled more cannons, for there were now three beams for him to evade. Cursing and spinning, Jack climbed higher into the night sky, and didn't stop until the yells and blasts had receded to silence. Sighing, Jack leaned back into his chair before switching the ship to autopilot. A noise behind him startled him into a spin, raising his staff threateningly.

"Jack?"

The voice came from a young fairy, Jack's latest conquest, she was bigger than the stereotypical fairies of myth, hell she was five feet tall. Her body was adorned with a wild variety of blue and green feathers. Her purle wings buzzing like a hummingbirds, her violet eyes shining with confusion.

"Oh hey, um..." Jack said, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember his fling's name.

"Tooth" the fairy finished for him.

"Right! Tooth!" Jack exclaimed, "I'm gonna be honest. I completely forgot you were here"

* * *

**Authors Note**

So how was it? This is my first attempt a multi-chapter story so please some reviews and suggestions.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Hunt Begins**

* * *

_Crescent Moon- _Unconfirmed Territory

Jack was at peace. The thugs that had so desperately wanted him dead were long behind him. Now all he had to do was travel to the Western Kingdom capital, Burgess, give the orb to the broker and run off with the money.

He leaned back into his lounge chair, his mind drifting off a peaceful slumber as the soothing tunes emanating from his radio drifted to his ears.

A shrill beeping awoke him, as well Tooth.

"Hey Jack" Tooth called, "You have a call". In her half-slumbering state, she unconsciously reached for the answer button.

Jack having just come to his senses quickly realized who the caller would be, and leaped across the room, his arms stretched outward in a futile attempt to swat her hand away from the screen.

"Jack!" yelled a heavily accented voice from the other end of the line, the anger only thickening said accent.

Jack turned to the screen to face his caller. He was right. It was his boss, North.

North was a large man, enough said. He was almost seven feet tall, his shoulders were broad, draped a heavy fur coat. The burly muscles of his arms were covered in tattoos, the most obvious ones being the words NAUGHTY and NICE on each forearm. His face was wrinkled and old, but his ice-blue shone with barely constrained fury and his slate-grey eyebrows were curled into a permanent look of anger.

"Hey North" Jack said, trying to keep his voice chipper, whether or not it was working was a complete mystery.

"So" North started, his own voice seemingly trying to keep its temper under control (it wasn't working) "Me and the rest of the band are in Moragia, and it's so funny, because the orb doesn't happen to be here, and neither are you!"

Jack, not willing to lose his nerve to the larger man replied "I was in the neighbourhood, so I thought I'd save you the hassle and get it myself"

"So where are you now?"

"I feel really bad about this, but I'm not gonna tell you"

North's anger was rising, "I slaved to put this deal together Jack!"

""Slaved" is a bit of a strong word, you just made a few calls..." Jack retorted but he was cut off by another outburst.

"We don't do this to each other Jack! We have a code!"

Jack was starting to get a bit ticked off by North's ranting "Get with the times North! We. Are. Mercenaries. Our "code" is to steal from everyone!"

North was still ranting "When I found as a boy Jack, you remember? You were half-dead, you had nearly drowned, you were nearly frozen" Jack was muttering something about how it felt more like abduction than rescue "I saved your life! You are alive because of me!"

Jack had had enough "I'm hanging up now"

* * *

Moragia (maw-RA-jee-ah)- Eastern Kingdom

"Don't you dare..." North growled, but it was too late. Jack had terminated the call.

With an angry yell, he spun on his heel to face the mercenary behind him "Put a bounty on him! 40k! Alive!"

The mercenary ran off with a "yes sir", another merc however was less than pleased. "Alive?" he questioned incredulously

"Yes Aster, I want him alive!" North yelled back at him. He turned away to return to the ship, but his fellow merc was still talking

"I told you this would happen" Aster said, "When we picked him up, we should have delivered him like we were hired to. He was cargo! You have always been soft on him"

North spun back round to face his accuser, Aster would have probably continued if it weren't for the scimitar North now held at his throat.

North spoke in a voice devoid of the raging fury he had just displayed moments before, his voice rather edged with a cold tranquil anger that the froze the blood of those that heard it, "The only one I'm being soft on is you"

He sheathed his sword back into his belt, "Don't worry about Mr Frost, Aster. Rest assured once we have him back, I'm going to kill him myself"

* * *

_Great Black-_Undecided Territory

A man dropped dead at Drago's feet, the long excruciating torture he had been forced to suffer having finally met its end.

Drago stood at an impressive seven feet, his body clad in armour crafted from dull leather and metal, his face hideously scarred from his years as a soldier, his greasy black hair and beard tied into uneven dreadlocks. The unusual thing about him was his left arm, it was replaced with an incredibly advanced prosthetic that was made from gleaming black metal. A long and bloodied elephant hook in his hands.

Drago bore no love for the man that he had so brutally killed, or any men of the western kingdom. He vividly remembered the world war that his home had fallen into. It was where he had lost his arm. All four kingdoms had torn each other apart, but the west, being the most technologically advanced at the time, created bombs that levelled entire cities, one such bomb having destroyed his home village. Then, forty years later, the western kingdom had the audacity to suggest a peace treaty. The leaders of the kingdoms of course leapt at the offer, but Drago could never accept peace. He had gone on a killing spree, killing people that he blamed for the war and its insulting peace treaty.

That's when Mor'du, the dreaded demon bear had approached him with a deal. He could ensure the destruction of the western kingdom, provided Drago found a certain orb for him.

"Drago" came a voice from the shadows, emerging from them a young man. This was Macintosh. At one point in his life he might have been a handsome man, but years of surgical enhancements had ravaged the once healthy being. His mechanical enhancements were fused with his flesh, blurring where the metal ended at he actually began, his messy raven hair fell over half his face. His lean frame was scarred, his upper half covered only by some kind of sash. A large sword hung from his waist.

He spoke again "Dagur has come back"

Dagur kneeled before Drago, and timidly told him of how he took two of his men to Moragia to collect the orb that Mor'du wanted, only for it to be stolen from them by a thief.

"He is an outlaw, a thief that calls himself Jack Frost. He escaped, but we know that he plans to meet with a broker in the city of Burgess, where he will sell it on"

Drago snapped his head to look at Macintosh "You will go to Burgess and retrieve the orb"

Macintosh bowed "It would be my honour"

"It would be your doom". The speaker was a young, petite, but nonetheless fierce-looking woman. Her hair was a golden braid that grew down to her waist, her body clad in a durable leather cat suit. She too, like Macintosh, was noticeably enhanced with cybernetics, although hers were more subtle, they didn't impair her body's natural beauty in any way. Her name was Rapunzel.

She turned to face Drago "If this happens again you will be facing my father without his prize"

Macintosh was insulted. How dare his sister doubt his abilities! "I am a child of Mor'du, sister, just like you"

"But I have been to Burgess, brother" Rapunzel replied "I know how to mingle with the west"

Her argument was sound, but Macintosh was adamant "Drago has already decreed that I..."

"You do not speak for me!" Drago cut him off sharply. He turned to face Rapunzel, "You had better not fail me girl"

Rapunzel did not shrink away under Drago's glare, and she looked him in the eye despite being a full foot shorter "Have I ever?"

* * *

**Authors Note: I have yet to come up with a name for this worlds currency so if anyone has any ideas please tell me them.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Fight at First Sight**

* * *

Burgess (BUR-jess)- Western Kingdom

It was the weekend, countless numbers of people ran to and fro going about their business, work or leisure. One person however, was not moving at all, this one person stood by the fountain in the square. To anyone he looked like an average fifteen/sixteen year old boy, his clothes were at least one size too big for his scrawny frame, and his left leg had at some point been replaced with a crude metal prosthesis. But this boy was Hiccup, a boy with an IQ of 161 and a penchant for antisocial behaviour. A pair of high-tech binoculars raised to his eyes as he scanned the ground for potential money.

"Burgess, what a cesspit" he said to no one "The people here live stupid, repetitive lives, working day in and day out, and all they'll get at the end of the line is a boring-ass house and a boot from the boss. Pathetic." His vision fell upon a man with an outlandish hairstyle that seemed more at home on the head of zebra, "Look at this guy! They call me inconsiderate, when he's assaulting my sense of sight with that haircut" He looked at a toddler in the park, being led by the hand of its parent "What's up with this munchkin? He must think he's so cool. It's not cool to ask for help! Walk by yourself you little gargoyle!" Raising his eyes to the walkway above, he caught an wizened old man attempting to seduce an attractive twenty-something woman "Jesus, where's your wife man? In a retirement home? What a perv"

He lowered the binoculars from his eyes to reveal an unusual pair of acid-green eyes, their pupils contracted slits like a cat, or a reptile "Am I right bud?" he asked, looking over his shoulder to find his friend.

His friend, Toothless, was a dragon, despite being considerably smaller than other dragons, towered above Hiccup, easily the size of a car, his black scales shining in the afternoon sun, he was lapping up the water from the fountain.

"Don't drink fountain water you idiot!" Hiccup called, "That's disgusting!"

Toothless's head snapped up to look at his master and whined at him. All anyone could hear were a series of whines and growls, but Hiccup could understand it like perfect english.

"I just saw you bud" Hiccup replied "Don't try denying it"

Sighing in exasperation, he looked through his binoculars again. Up on the balcony he could see a guy, pale skin, white hair, talking to a pretty little fairy who gave him a kiss goodbye before buzzing away, the binoculars sensors bleeped as they scanned him.

"Hey Toothless, I think we've got one" Hiccup said excitedly, "Alright pal, how badly does someone want you?"

The computer within the binoculars did its job, a small profile popping up:  
_Name: Jackson Overland  
__Client: Nicholas North  
__Status: Alive  
__Reward: 40,000_

Hiccup's jaw dropped "Forty grand" He looked back to Toothless, "We're gonna be rich bud"

Toothless didn't hear his master unfortunately, his head was completing submerged in the fountain as he drank his fill, again.

"Oh for gods sake Toothless!"

* * *

Jack was heading towards the broker's store, still thinking about Tooth. It was a shame, he liked the fairy, but he was just incapable of settling down, hell, he didn't know if he even wanted to. He walked through the doors of a small jewellers. His vision fell upon a saytr. This one was particularly small and fat, but it was probably smart not to say that to his face.

"Phil!" Jack called brightly

The saytr looked up from his desk "Ah, Jack my boy"

Jack placed the orb down on his desk "Your orb, as promised"

Phil looked over Jack's shoulder as if he expected someone to be behind him, "Where's North?" he inquired

"Couldn't make it I'm afraid" Jack lied "But, he send his apologies, his love..." he placed a tin box wrapped in a yellow ribbon in front of the small saytr "and a small box of assorted cookies"

Phil eyed the box hungrily, which made Jack smile, he knew food was the best way to earn a saytr's attention "So" he began "You want to tell me what this is?" he gestured to the orb.

Phil looked at the orb, at him, then back to the orb, "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say, Jack" he said in a smug tone "It's my policy after all"

"Well I almost died trying to get it" Jack countered

"Isn't that an occupational hazard for a mecenary?"

"Yeah, but there were three of them. Their leader, this deranged guy said they worked for some guy called Drago"

Phil dropped the orb in shock "Drago?" he asked, fear plainly in his voice. He picked up the orb and gave it back to Jack before trying to push him out of the store "Sorry pal, but if Drago's involved then I don't want anything to do with this deal!"

"Woah wait" Jack said, planting his still bare feet firmly into the ground "Who's Drago?"

"A southern fanatic who's got some beef with the peace treaty" Phil "He won't stop until the western kingdom, my homeland, is wiped of the face of the world" He started pushing Jack out again, despite his protests "He's a guy whose bad side I'd rather not be on!"

Jack stopped him again "What about my bad side?"

Phil gave him a harsh shove through the door with a quick "goodbye" before he closed it back over again.

"Hey come on man" Jack yelled at the door "We had a deal!"

He turned to walk away, when his eyes fell upon a young woman maybe about his age with long blonde hair, her green eyes glittered with amusement, she was leaning on a nearby wall, eating an apple of some kind. Jack's first thought: "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn", second thought: "Next girl of the week".

"What was that all about?" she asked, gesturing to the door of Phil's shop.

Jack paused for a moment to think up a reply, there was something different about this girl that distracted him, made his brain think a little bit slower "Um, this guy" he gestured to the door "just backed out of a deal on me" he brushed a bit of dust of his shoulder, "if there's one thing I hate, it's a man without integrity" He gave the blonde a polite nod of the head "Name's Jack Frost"

The girl had finished her apple and had started walking up to him "You have the bearing of a man of honour" she complimented

"Well, I wouldn't say that" Jack responded, "I mean, people say that about me, all the time, but I wouldn't really consider myself..."

As Jack was rambling the girl had walking right up him and, without warning, she snatched the orb from his hand and had sent him flying with a sharp kick to the gut. She sped off in the opposite direction, barging past a couple of people in her sprint.

Jack however, quickly sprung back to his feet and, with a swing of his staff, formed ice along the walkway, making her fall over onto the ground. By the time he had caught up to her however the blonde had recovered and as Jack reached down to grab the orb, she delivered a sharp two-legged kick to his chin, knocking him flat. She pounced as he tried to get back up. Jack threw a few punches but the girl effortlessly blocked them, pinning him down.

She pulled a knife from her boot "Sorry about this" she said. She raised her weapon for the killing blow, but she was blind-sided by a random boy with a fake foot, tackling her off of Jack.

"Get him bud!" the boy called to his dragon companion.

The dragon, a large burlap sack in its paws, retracted its teeth into its gums and grabbed the girl, trying to put her into the bag.

The young boy was less than pleased "No! Not her, him! This one has tits! Learn your genders!"

The girl, upon realising that Jack had gotten up and was running, bit the person who held her on the hand, and he let her go, complaining that biting was somehow unfair, and with a sharp kick to its nose, forced the dragon to release her. With a surprising level of strength, she threw the boy over her shoulder and off the walkway, the dragon predictably chasing after his master. Holding her knife again, with superb aim she threw it, knocking the orb out of Jack's hand. The orb was sent rolling off the walkway, and she leapt off after it.

Grabbing the orb, the woman ran for it, only for Jack to jump off the walkway and land on top of her. Naturally, after their brief tumble Jack found himself pinned again.

"Fool" the girl, his persistance now beginning to irritate her, "You should have learned"

"I don't learn" Jack replied "It's one of my issues"

Holding tightly onto his staff, Jack willed a gust of wind to send the femme fatale flying across the square, colliding with the fountain. Holding the orb victoriously, Jack took a second to catch his breath, right as the dragon turned up behind him, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and stuffed him into a sack.

Turning to his master, the dragon flashed him a gumsy grin as he dragged the flailing sack towards him.

"Come on, bud, stop smiling" the boy chided him, "You're supposed to be a professional"

Turning to leave, the dragon master turned to see that not only had the lady recovered from her crash, but was now marching towards them with an electrified whip in hand.

"You've got to be kidding me" was all he coud say before she swatted him aside.

Raising her arm into the air, she brought the whip down onto the dragon's flank, it hissed in pain, but did not let go of the sack. She swung the whip again, this time striking the dragon on the nose. With an almost canine yelp, the dragon dropped the bag and backed away. The woman reached into the sack to grab the orb, only to be frozen solid by a surprise attack from Jack. Keeping a firm grip on both his staff and the orb, Jack ran for it.

The bounty hunter boy got to his feet and pulled a small launcher from the strap on his back. "I live for the simple things" he said as he took aim "like how funny this is going to look"

He fired, and from the launcher a bolas was sent flying, wrapping itself around Jack's ankles, and hitting him with enough force that he was sent into a somersault before landing flat on his face.

"Heh, and stay there little man" the small boy chuckled.

He turned to his loyal companion, whose whip marks had left small burns on him.

"Aw, did that nasty lady hurt you Toothless?" he cooed, giving the dragon a scratch "Yes she did, yes she did"

The dragon responded to this baby-talk by giving his master a big lick across the face.

And that's when the police turned up.

* * *

**Authors Note**

-I still have no idea what to call this world's currency. Any help is appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

**Welcome to the Slammer**

* * *

Burgess (BUR-jess)  
Western Kingdom

Beams of light launched themselves from the policecraft to Hiccup and Toothless, trapping them both.

"Hiccup III!" yelled one of the officers, "Drop your weapon!"

Hiccup wasn't stupid and with a quiet spout of profanity dropped his bolas launcher.

"By the authority of the Western Guard, you are under arrest for the endangerment to life and the destruction of property!"

Meanwhile, less than 100 yards away, Jack was being cut from the bolas and hauled to his feet. Unfortunately he recognized one of the officers: Hawkins.

He seemed to recogonize Jack as well, "Hey Frosty, long time no see!"

"It's Frost officer, not frosty" Jack clarified.

Ignoring him, Hawkins was already babbling to the co-worker that had Jack's other arm, "Hey Gobber, this is the guy I was telling you about. Remember, I arrested him for petty theft, he even has a code-name!"

"It's an outlaw name" Jack argued, then wincing at his words, realising how weak his argument was.

"Yeah whatever man" Hawkins said, patting Jack on the back "It's not that weird"

If the sarcasm in his voice was any thicker, it could be cut with a knife.

* * *

Western Guard HQ  
Western Kingdom

Two officers were standing in front of the screen. It was their job to review the latest group of convicts being shipped out to prison.

"Lets get this over with Jim" said one officer to the other "I have places to be"

"Relax Aladdin" officer Hawkins replied "Your wife's not going anywhere"

Officers Hawkins and Ababwa opened the file, recording their words for the archives.

"Okay then" Hawkins began, "Rapunzel. Origins say Southern Kingdom, she was surgically modified and trained to be a living weapon, says here she was adopted the demon bear, Mor'du. Jesus"

Realising that Hawkins probably wasn't going to continue, Ababwa started to read the file, "Her most recent affiliations however have been with Drago Bludvist, alongside her adopted brother Macintosh, possibly confirming that Drago is working with or for Mor'du"

Hawkins opened the next file "Hiccup III. The result of illegal genetic experimentation" He turned to his colleague in confusion "He seems to be pretty normal to me, maybe the eyes are off and he's missing a leg but he still looks like a normal teenager"

Ababwa pointed to a paragraph on the file "Read the file. Says here he was vat-grown, accelerated maturation, chronologically he's only four years old, spliced dragon and sapien DNA. Says he's missing a leg because it never grew past the knee"

Turning to the next file, Ababwa was taken by surprise "Good god, is that...?"

"They call it Toothless" Hawkins explained "Looks like a dragon, DNA shows it's a subspecies called "Night Fury", apparently it's the last of its kind. Says here it's been travelling with Hiccup III as protection and companion. Warning: seperation of the two is highly inadvisable" He closed the dragon's file "Guess he's going to jail too"

Hawkins opened the last file. It was a name he recognised. "Jackson Overland. Western Kingdom. Raised from youth by a band of mercenaries led by Nicholas North. Calls himself "Jack Frost""

"Who calls him that?"

"Himself mostly"

* * *

The Crucible  
Unconfirmed Territory

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to a hellhole" said Hiccup bitterly, "You see, what most people don't realise that the Western Kingdom's prisons aren't in the west, they're out here, on the sea, neutral ground. Which is brilliant because they could kill us all and deny everything and get off scot free. Bad for us because, no kingdom equals no law. The people here are corrupt and cruel" He turned to scratch Toothless behind the ear, chuckling "But hey, that's not my problem, we won't be here long, will we boy?"

Toothless nuzzled his master's chest, given that he was muzzled and so couldn't lick him.

Hiccup continued to talk "Toothless and I have already escaped seven prisons, this one will be no different" He pointed at Rapunzel, who was walking at the front of the line "You know you're lucky Goldilocks there showed up when she did Jack, cause if she didn't, we be colecting that 40k by now, and you'd been shish-kebabed by North and his goons"

Jack only shrugged "Lots of people have tried, none have succeeded"

"Yet" Hiccup retorted.

"So" Jack spoke up again, speaking to Rapunzel, "this orb has a one ring, ark of the covenant feel to it, care to explain what it is?"

Rapunzel was as stoic as ever "I have no words for a honourless thief"

"That's rich, coming from the lackey of a homicidal maniac" Hiccup scoffed

Rapunzel turned to glare at him, but Hiccup wasn't done "Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are"

"I don't" Jack admitted. He was swiftly dope-slapped by Toothless's tail.

"I wasn't retrieving the orb for Drago" Rapunzel explained, "I was going to sell it off, I had an agreement with a third party"

Jack was good at sussing out a liar. It seemed like she was telling the truth.

* * *

The next few hours were a living hell for Jack. He had been forced to strip down for decontamination, this involved being soaked with a disinfectant that burned like acid, and was thrown into a room to change himself into a prisoners uniform.

With a lot of yelling, cursing and death threats, the same happened to Hiccup, who had to drag himself over to his replacement prosthetic. As he did this, Jack got a quick look at his back, and realised the kid was more messed up that he let on.

Little black spines protruded from his spinal column. Entire patches of skin turned from soft mammalian skin into ebony scales, a countless amount of scar tissue decorated his scrawny frame.

Hiccup snapped his head to look at Jack. Jack, realising he had just been watching Hiccup get dressed hurriedly averted his gaze.

The group were handed sleeping mats and shoved into the courtyard. Every eye in said courtyard turned to look at them, or at least one person. Then the yelling started.

"RAPUNZEL!"  
"YOU'RE DEAD!"  
"MURDERER!"  
"YOU'RE GONNA DIE HERE!"  
Were just some of the more family-friendly death threats that were thrown at her. Jack was stunned. Never before in his life had he ever seen so much hatred directed at one person.

"Like I said" Hiccup said, "She has a rep. A lot of people have lost friends and families to Drago and his goons. I'm betting a revenge-by-proxy scenario. She'll last about a day"

"Won't the guards protect her?" Jack asked

Hiccup looked back at him like he was stupid "They're here to keep us in. They don't give a damn about what we do to each other"

"Don't worry" Rapunzel spoke up, surprising the two guys, "Whatever nightmares the future may hold, are dreams compared to what's behind me"

"Jesus" Jack muttered to himself before turning and walking into a solid wall of minotaur muscle.

"Check out the new meat!" the minotaur bellowed, running his hand over Jack's face in a manner than made alarm bells ring inside Jack's brain "I'm gonna slather you up with the soap first, then I'm gonna go to town..."

The minotaur's monologue was abruptly cut off however, when Toothless's jaws, teeth bared, clamped down on the minotaur's arm and throwing him onto his back. Jack couldn't bear to watch, all he could hear was crunching bone and the minotaur's screams.

"Okay! Listen up!" Hiccup called out over the sounds of sceaming. "This one here (he pointed at Jack) is _my_ bitch! You want him, you go through me! Or, to put it more accurately, _he_ (he pointed at Toothless) _goes through you_!"

Toothless released his prey, who immediately fell to the floor, holding his mauled arm close to his chest, and curled up into the foetal position. Hiccup just nonchalantly stepped over him before walking off with his dragon.

"I'm wth them!" Jack clarified before walking around the minotaur, and running after his "bodyguards"

Rapunzel was escorted into a solitary confinement cell "for her own protection" while everyone was still yelling bloody murder at her. However there was one inmate that never raised their voice, that never moved, they just kept their gaze on Rapunzel.

A cold, blue-eyed gaze.


	5. Chapter 5

**Meet Merida**

* * *

The Crucible  
Unconfirmed Territory

That night, Jack was awoken to the sound of muffled screams. Stirring himself awake, he saw that somebody had torn the door to Rapunzel's solitary off its hinges, and a small group of inmates appeared to be conversing with a guard. Straining to listen, Jack vaguely heard something about "showers" and how it was easier to clean up down there, when the group shuffled in the direction of said showers. That's when he saw Rapunzel in the group. Realising this was Hiccup's revenge-by-proxy scenario in motion, Jack snuck after them.

Hiccup stirred awake as well, his enhanced hearing alerting him to someone leaving the cell block. Realising it was Jack, he quuickly started to folow him.

* * *

Rapunzel was hurt. Badly. She couldn't see out of one eye, and her ribs hurt like hell. She hadn't felt pain like this since the days when she was being conditioned to being Mor'du's supersoldier. Someone had picked her up, she was being pinned to a wall.

"Rapunzel" said the inmate that held a knife to her throat, "Consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the four kingdoms"

"You dare?!" yelled a voice from behind them.

Every face turned to the speaker. Suddenly every inmate in the room was very quiet, and scared. Rapunzel's vision was currently imapired, but she could make out a few details.

The speaker was a woman, a sapien, about six feet tall. Her hair was a mane of messy red curls, her eyes were a piercing ice-blue. Her accent was unusual, but it was familiar to Rapunzel, it was similar to the accent that Macintosh had, so she guessed the woman was a northerner.

"You know who I am?" the woman asked the inmates.

"You're Merida" one of them replied, fear in his voice "Merida of Dunbroch"

"You know what I've done?" she asked

"You've killed hundreds of Drago's followers" the same inmate answered

"You know why?"

The inmate did not have an answer for that. Merida went on to explain, however her speech felt more directed at Rapunzel.

"Drago Bludvist killed my family. My father, Fergus, my mother Elinor, and my brothers Hubert, Hamish and Harris. He killed them where they stood. And he laughed!"

She turned to face the inmates "Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family" She looked back at Rapunzel "So I'll kill one of his"

"Of course Merida" cowered one the inmates, handing her a knife.

Realising her chance, Rapunzel sprung into action. Ignoring the pain in her ribs, she delivered a series of brutal punches to the inmates beside them, knocking them out. In a blur she picked up a pair of blades and held them to the necks of Merida and her fellow inmate.

Her words were spoken carefully, so as to hide her fear "I am no family to Drago, or to Mor'du" she dropped her blades onto the floor, "And I'm your only hope at stopping him"

With a ver un-ladylike roar, Merida grabbed Rapunzel by the throat and pinned her back against the wall, with every intent to throttle her, "Your words mean nothing to me"

"Wait!" came another call.

It was Jack, who had just seen the events take place and (against Hiccup's protestations) decided to intervene. "Look, if killing Drago is your sole purpose in life I honestly don't think it's the best way to do it"

Merida stared at him for a second "Aren't you the guy this bitch tried to kill?"

Jack smirked "She's not the first girl to try if I'm honest" He pull up his shirt to reveal a three pronged stab wound near his kidney "I got this one from an elf, she tried to stab me with a fork, she didn't like me leaving her at sunrise and this one (he pulled his collar down to reveal some claw marks around his collarbone) was when a cathar tried to rip my throat out. She caught me chatting up this mermaid receptionist. I was trying to get information, I mean have you see merpeople, they're nasty, they've got gills, and needles for teeth and..." He stopped as he realised that Merida had stopped listening. "Look, the point is, she (pointing at Rapunzel) betrayed Drago, so he'll be coming for her, and when he gets here that's when you can..." He made a throat-slicing gesture with his thumb.

Taking the gesture literally, Merida replied "I don't wanna cut his throat, I'm gonna take his whole fucking head off!"

"Ok, I don't care how you kill him!" Jack snapped "Just, don't kill her. No need to do Drago's work for him"

Merida contemplated this for a few seconds before releasing Rapunzel, who fell to the floor gasping for air.

Merida started walking away "I keeping your knife" she called to the other inmate.

"That was my favourite knife" he said dejectedly

* * *

"Look" Jack explained "I couldn't care less whether you live or die blondie"

"Then why did you stop her?" Rapunzel asked

"Simple. You know where to sell my orb"

"And how are we going to sell said orb when we and it are still here?"

Jack turned to Hiccup "Hiccup here" he said "Has escaped from seven prisons already"

"We're getting out" Hiccup assured "And then we're going to North to collect your bounty"

"Rapunzel, how much was your buyer willing to pay for the orb?" Jack asked

Rapunzel sighed, "Four billion rubies"

"What?!"  
"Holy shit!"

"That orb is my ticket to a new life" Rapunzel continued, "If you help me, I will lead you to the buyer and we'll split the money between the three of us"

A small grunt came from behind them.

"Make that four of us" Hiccup translated. He turned to look at Toothless "Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per freaking usual"

* * *

_The Great Black_  
Unconfirmed Territory

Drago was not pleased. He had just learned that Rapunzel had been incarcerated, and what was worse, Mor'du was demanding an update.

His message came in the form of Gothel, a petite woman with ivory white skin and raven black hair. To some, she would be considered beautiful, but Drago knew that the woman was even older than he was, by several centuries, and was the most vindictive and vain female he had ever come across.

"You have been betrayed Drago" she said in her signature smug, sing-song voice

It took his best efforts to not try and kill her where she stood, "Our sources say she has only been captured Gothel" Drago argued "Rapunzel may yet still retrieve the orb"

"No she won't" said Gothel, "Our sources say she has her own plans for the orb. Your alliance with the great Mor'du is at risk. You are meet with him as soon as possible" The screen that they were commmunicating between began to fade out "I'd hurry. You know how Mor'du hates to be kept waiting"

The line went dead. And for the first time in many years, Drago was scared.


	6. Chapter 6

**Mor'du**

* * *

Blackwood  
Eastern Kingdom

During the world war, many cities and homelands were bombed, incinerated and ravaged by it. One such place would be Blackwood, a village nestled in the heart of a pine forest. Those trees were long gone now, munitions and fire having wiped them from the face of the earth. Only one life lived here, Mor'du.

The demon bear himself had perched himself upon a rocky outcropping, overseeing what lay before him like a judge. Below him, was his trusted servant Gothel. Drago had a bone to pick with both of them.

Any sane man would not dare incur the wrath of Mor'du, but as we all knew, Drago was not sane.

"With all due respect Mor'du, it was your daughter that created this mess, and I am the one that is summoned..."

"I would lower my voice if were you" Gothel warned

"Firstly, she lost a fight with some sapien..."

"Rapunzel was put under your charge" Gothel argued

"Then, she apprehended by the Western Guard..."

"You are the one here with nothing to show for it" she retorted

Drago was yelling now "Your sources say that she meant to betray us the whole time!"

"Lower your tone!" Gothel shrieked, "You are acting like a..."

Her sentence was never finished. By that time, Drago was in a rage and had knocked Gothel to the ground with a savage backhand, he brought his elephant hook down on her head with a sickening crack.

Macintosh, who had up until this moment had been inspecting his augmentations, looked up in shock. Only Mor'du remained impassive.

Turning away from Gothel's corpse, Drago spoke to Mor'du, his voice calm again "I only ask that you take this matter seriously"

Mor'du, feeling that a display was required leapt down from his perch, and landed in front of Drago, and stood up on his hind limbs. He towered over the already large man. Mor'du's hide was littered with the weapons of those who had dared to try and kill them, his face and snout were horribly scarred. One of his eyes was blind, glazed over after it shot with an arrow, his other eye however, was a terrifying thing to behold. It was intact, but the red eye practically glowed with anger, malice, hate and most terrifying of all, intelligence. When he spoke, he spoke in a growl that made all the hairs on the back of Drago's head stand on end and his blood freeze.

"The only thing (he moved towards Drago, who instinctively took a step back) I do not take seriously, mortal, is you. Your politics bore me! Your demeanour is like that of a whimpering cub! And apparently, it seems you alienated my daughter Rapunzel"

He leaned forward, staring Drago in the eye, who seemed to grow smaller with every second "I shall honour our agreement Bludvist, if you bring me the orb. But if you fail, if you return to me empty-handed, then I will run the seas red in your blood!"

Turning away from the cowering man, Mor'du climbed back up the outcropping. Drago, realising he had been cowering, was livid, he was about to speak again when Macintosh's arm landed on his shoulder.

"That's a fight you won't win" he warned "Let's head to the Crucible"

* * *

**Authors Note**

So that was Mor'du. I've always thought Mor'du was a brilliant badass villain and that he's rarely shown a lot in other fanfics. Usually he's just portrayed as an obstacle, or as a mindless attack dog. So I decided to make him an intelligent big bad for this story and for some other stories I plan on making after this one. I just kind of hope I did the big guy justice.

Secondly. I imagine many of you die-hards would be complaining about how the characters are either OOC or swearing too much. So I'd like to apologize and explain that their personalities are meant to be a fusion of their original and their counterparts.  
\- Jack has a good heart and likes to have fun and a bit of a laugh, but he was raised by a band of mercenaries so he's going to have a bit of a jerkass side.  
\- Toothless is a dragon, so he naturally has a savage side, but due to Hiccup's upbringing in this story as a test subject, he doesn't really have the morals to rein his dragon friend in.  
\- Merida is angry, she's Scottish, she's in a modern setting. I find it perfectly understandable that she would swear if she was pissed off enough.  
\- Rapunzel still has a moral code and a sense of honour, but its a bit more grey due to the fact she was raised by Mor'du

Thirdly, if you think I need to raise the age limit, don't hesitate to tell me.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Escape**

* * *

The Crucible  
Unconfirmed Territory

"Okay, if we're gonna get out of here, we'll need to get into the watchtower. I'm gonna need a few things"

It had been about a day since the ragtag bunch of criminals agreed to organise an escape, and if it was anyone else they would be questioning the likelehood of the plan succeeding. Fortunately, they knew that Hiccup was genius in his field, so they decided to listen.

"First, the guards wear security bands to control the doors, I need one"

"Leave that to me" Rapunzel said almost immediately

Hiccup pointed to a man across the courtyard that wore a prosthetic leg "Second, I need his leg"

"His leg?" Jack questioned

"Yeah" Hiccup confirmed, "God knows I don't need the rest of him. He's useless. Couldn't even call him a snack"

Jack sincerely hoped he was joking. Nevertheless he shrugged his shoulders "Alright, I'll get that"

"And finally," Hiccup continued "on the wall back there is a black panel with a blinky yellow light. You see it?"

Jack stared at the wall until he could see what Hiccup was talking about "Yeah?"

"Inside it is something called a quartz battery. Purple box, green and red wires. If we're getting out, I'll definitely need that"

"How are we going to do that?" Rapunzel asked

"Well apparently these guys find you attractive, so maybe you can work out some kind of trade" Hiccup suggested

Rapunzel stared at the boy in disbelief "You must be joking"

"No, I really heard they find you attractive"

"Look, it's 20 feet in the air and it's in the centre of the yard, which is being constantly watched by armed guards. It's impossible" Jack protested

"Well, I've only got one plan, and that plan requires a damn quartz battery so _figure it out_!"

Hiccup took a moment to recollect himself "Now, most importantly, when that battery's pulled out, everything in this place will go into emergency mode, once we have it, we'll have to move fast. So we should definitely get that last"

Unbeknownst to them Toothless, who had left the conversation upon hearing that they needed a battery, had trotted across the courtyard, had climbed the 20 feet, completely unseen by the guards and with the power of his teeth and jaws alone, had torn the battery out. Completely oblivious to the alarms that he had just unknowingly set off, he landed on the ground, sitting like an obedient dog, smiling with the battery at his feet.

Realsing what had just happened, Rapunzel and Jack sprang into action

"I'll get the armband!"  
"Leg!"

Hiccup could only facepalm.

With a mechanical scream, a team of security drones had flown into the yard and circled Toothless in a tight formation.

"Prisoner" came a voice from the watchtower's intercom "Drop the device and return to your cell or we will open fire!"

Toothless reared up on his hind limbs and bellowed a defiant roar. The drones opened fire, their bullets bouncing off the dragon's increadibly durable hide. Firing a blast of purple flame from his mouth, Toothless sent one of the drones crashing, nearly killing an inmate in the process. He sent another flying with his tail causing even more destruction. He dropped to all fours as Hiccup slid underneath him for protection.

"You idiot!" he cried, "how am I supposed to help you when I don't have my stuff?!"

Toothless didn't reply, he just angled himself so as to protect his master.

Off to the side, guards were lining up shots with higher calibre rounds, designed to kille creatures like dragons.

They never got the chance. Within seconds Merida had joined the fray. She fly kicked the first guard in the head, knocking him unconcious, before grabbing the gun of the second, disarming him and knocking him out with the butt of said weapon.

Turning to Hiccup she called "Oi! Wee gremlin!"

She tossed the gun at Hiccup, who crawled out from underneath his reptilian shield and catching it. He gave it a quick inspection, "This'll work" before unleashing a storm of bullets upon the drones. Toothless shot fireballs, master and dragon roaring in unison.

* * *

Rapunzel ran like lightning, knocking out all who stood in her way. True, she could have taken any guards armband, but she wanted one in particular. The guard who allowed the inmates to nearly kill her.

With a powerful swing, she knocked a guard flat before using his body as a springboard to flykick another. Not slowing down, she leaped over a man wielding a riot shield before knocking him unconcious with a roundhouse kick. Finally, the guard she was after swung a baton at her, she efortlessly dodged it and grabbed his arm in a painful lock.

"I need this" she gestured to the security band

"Good luck with that, bitch, it's internally wired" the guard spat back

A unsettling smile grew on Rapunzel's face "I'll figure something out"

There was the sound of an arm snapping, and the guard howled in agony.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jack was running to the watchtower to regroup with the others, the metal leg in his hands. It took a bit of convincing but the guy in the end gave up his leg.

"Drop the leg!" ordered a guard, pointing an assault rifle at him. Jack froze.

"Drop the leg and return to your cell!" he commanded. Swinging the prosthesis like a bat, Jack managed to disarm and knock out the guard in a couple of swings before stealing the assault rifle, shooting drones as they flew overhead.

Looking at Hiccup, Jack saw Rapunzel throw the boy the armband and he ordered his dragon to the watchtower, so he ran after them.

Climbing the stairs, Jack's path was blocked by an drone. He pointed his gun and pulled the trigger, which resulted in an empty click. Jack was defenceless.

With a battle cry, Merida leaped over Jack's shoulder as she landed on the drone, proceeding to tear its guns off with her bare hands. When her work was done, she pointed at Jack.

"You," she said "the guy who shagged a mermaid"

"It was one time" Jack muttered in response. He climbed the stairs, Merida following close behind.

When they came into the watchtower control room, the floor was slick with blood, and Toothless was licking his lips. Jack suddenly didn't want to think about what happened to the guard.

Rapunzel froze as Merida entered

"The fuck you looking at?" Merida challenged

Rapunzel galred at Jack like it was his fault (which it was) "Why is she here?"

"We promised her she can stay until she kills your boss, and I always keep my promises. Especially when they're powerful sociopaths who will kill me if I don't"

He placed the metal leg on the dashboard next to Hiccup with a clatter. Hiccup gave it a quick look before saying "Don't need it"

"What?" Jack asked in confusion

"I only needed these two things" Hiccup explained "I just thought it'd be funny" "Was it?" he asked turning to face Jack "Was it funny? Wait, how did he look, trying to hop around?"

"I had to give him 30 thousand rubies!" Jack exclaimed in outrage.

Hiccup just laughed and returned to his work.

"How are we leaving?" Merida asked

"He (gesturing to Hiccup) has a plan" Jack explained "Or was that another thing you made up?"

"I have a plan, I have a plan" Hiccup reassured them "Just calm down"

"Stop talking kid" Merida "just get us out of this hell"

"Yeah I have to agree with Warrior Princess" Jack agreed

Merida glared at the white haired boy "Don't call me princess" she warned

"It was just a TV reference" Jack explained

"She's from the north" Hiccup stated "TV and other complex shit is just gonna go over her head"

"Things don't go over my head" Merida argued "I could probably catch it"

Rapunzel sighed despairingly, "I'm going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the entire known world"

"Uh, guys?" Jack said "Those are some big guns"

Below them the guard had deployed RPGs and had begun firing them of in warning shots. The first shot landed. The explosion shook the entire tower, but it remained intact.

"Half-bred, we are ready for your plan!" Rapunzel said urgently

"Hold on!"

The second shot landed. The window cracked.

Merida suddenly looked at Toothless as if she had just realised he was in the room, "I recognise this animal, my people used to hunt them for sport"

Toothless snarled at her

"Not helping!" Hiccup snapped at the two of them

All the RPG launchers took aim at the tower. Three strikes, they were dead.

The rockets flew, only to be sent rebounding in all directions.

"You activated the tower's kinetic barriers" Rapunzel realised with amazement.

"That's not all" Hiccup boasted.

With a few taps of the computer screen every security drone in the courtyard flew into the tower, with the wrenching sound of metal, the drones lifted the upper half of the tower into the air and out of the courtyard.

Their flight was shortlived however as the tower crashed just outside of impound. All according to plan.

The team scurried to the evidence lockers, where their belongings were being held.

"There!" Jack called "There's my ship, the _Crescent Moon_, the silver and blue one over in the corner!"

Merida, Rapunzel and Hiccup had retrieved their belongings, although Hiccup was fuming "They crumpled my clothes into a ball! That's rude, they folded yours!"

Rapunzel stayed behind to wait for Jack. He handed her a bag. "Here" he said "The orb's in here. I'll be right back"

The blonde could only watch him in confusion as he ran off "Where are you going?"

"Just take the _Moon_ and wait outside okay?" he called back in response.

Jack was livid. They never put his staff into evidence! He ran to the guard's quarters, hoping that one of them had it there as some trophy. Some guards charged at him, Jack swiftly dispatched them in a series of punches and judo throws.

He entered their quarters and sure enough, there was one guard sleeping on the job. The staff leaned against his bed.

Picking it up, he shook the guard awake before saying "Next time, put it goddamn evidence" and clubbing the guard into unconsciousness.

* * *

"How's he gonna get to us?" Hiccup asked. He and the rest of the group were sitting in the Crescent Moon, hovering just outside the boundaries of the Crucible

"He didn't share that information with me" Rapunzel replied

"Well screw that! I'm not waiting for some suicidal leucistic" Hiccup stated "You have the orb right?"

"Yes" Rapunzel answered, reaching into the bag, only to find out it only contained a chocolate wrapper and a porn mag.

"Heh, smart" Hiccup said "he must still have it"

"Guys" Merida called, who was staring out the window "Look"

Lo and behold, there was Jack, flying. He flew towards them and opened one the hatches from the outside. Merida was at his side in an instant, clapping him hard on the shoulder.

"You mate, are brilliant!" she said "You'll be great in the fight against Drago! So, what did you get?"

"This" came Jack's reply, handing her the wooden staff

Merida looked at the staff, then back at Jack "You're an idjit"


	8. Chapter 8

**The Hunt Continues**

* * *

_Crescent Moon  
_Unconfirmed Territory

Hiccup was content. He was currently sitting on the floor, tinkering with some technology. Jack however, was not amused.

"Hey!" he yelled "What are you doing? You can't just take parts of my ship apart without asking. What is this?!"

His hand was swatted away from the small device Hiccup had built "Don't touch" he warned "It's a bomb"

"A bomb?"

"Yep"

"And you've just left it lying on the floor?"

"I was gonna put it in a box" Hiccup argued

"What's a box gonna do?!"

"How about this one" Hiccup suggested, pulling a blue shoebox out from one of the drawers.

"No!" Jack snapped "Don't touch that!" He snatched the box and put it back into the drawer.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at a large piece of tech.

"Oh that, that's for when things get really hardcore" Hiccup explained "Or if you feel like blowing up a mountainside"

"We're not destroying any mountains" Rapunzel called from the other side of the room

"You're no fun" Hiccup muttered

"So where are we headed?" Jack asked Rapunzel

"In the right direction" she answered, "For now anyway"

"You know, if this is going to work, you're going to have to trust m a little more" Jack stated

"How much do you trust me?" Rapunzel argued

"I'd trust you more if you told what that orb was. I'm guessing it's a weapon?"

"I don't know what it is" Rapunzel argued

Merida picked up the orb "If it's a weapon, I say we use it against Drago"

"Put that down you idiot before you kill us all" Rapunzel snapped at her

"Or maybe just you, bitch!" Merida retorted

"Hey!" Jack interuppted "Not on my ship!"

The two women stepped away from each other.

"Like it or not, we're stuck together until we get the money" Jack said

"I don't give a damn about the money" said Merida, who went to go sit down.

"Well" Jack said, breaking the silence that had formed "That means more money for the three of us"

Toothless growled from the corner.

"Four of us" Hiccup reminded them

"Alright, four of us. Partners"

"We have mutual interests, but I would never be partners with the likes of you" Rapunzel stated, walking towards the bridge, she said "I'll tell the buyer we're on our way" she stopped to turn back to Jack "And your ship is filthy"

Jack did not takes his eyes off her butt until it was out of sight. "Oh, she has no idea" he smirked "If I had a blacklight, this place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting"

Hiccup looked at him in disgust "You have problems man"

* * *

The Crucible  
Unconfirmed Territory

Everyone was on the floor. Drago and his soldiers were sifting through the crowds, trying to find Rapunzel. Meanwhile, Macintosh was trying his hand at torture.

"Please" begged the guard "I've told you all I know, I swear, I don't know where they went"

"If you did" Macintosh responded, drawing the electrified blade of his sword from the man's kneecap "You would have already told me"

An alert flashed upon Macintosh's mechanical wrist. He called to Drago, "Drago, the Western Guard has sent a fleet to protect the prison"

Drago contemplated his chances, before replying, "Send troops out every city, and find me that orb"

"And this place?" Macintosh asked

"No witnesses. Cleanse it"

The guard never even had time to scream before Macintosh had separated his head from his shoulders.

* * *

Burgess (BUR-jess)  
Western Kingdom

Phil was staring at his customers. He was quite unsure as to why North and his lackey (did he call him Aster?) was here.

North eyed a small deer model crafted from crystal. "How much for this one?" he asked "I have always had a soft spot for these things"

"I honestly can't tell if your joking or not" was Phil's reply

"He serious" Aster assured him

"Well, in that case..."

"Although" North interuppted him, "I would prefer it more if you told me what the orb is. And who else out there, might want to buy it"

Phil spoke "It is my policy..."

"Obellybolloboo" North interuppted him with gibberish

"It's my policy..."

"Obonabananana"

This went on for for a while, Phil would try to speak his prepared speech about how he doesn't give out information, and North would interrupt with babble, until Phil couldn't take it anymore

"I can't betray the confidentiality of my buyers!"

North seemingly had had enough as well, as Phil now had a scimitar pointed as his neck

"I'll ask again, little man" North stated, a terrifying look of tranquil fury on his face "Who. Is. The. Buyer?"


	9. Chapter 9

**Welcome to Neverland**

* * *

_Crescent Moon_  
Unconfirmed Territory

Jack was settled down in the lower part of his ship practicing some judo kata when Hiccup called down to him. "Hey Jack! We're arriving!"

Climbing the ladder into the cockpit, Jack could see that everyone had already gathered. Below the ship he could see the vast city where they would be landing. Most of it seemed like a shantytown, houses and buildings formed together by scrap metal and stone. Not far from the city however was a giant mountain, which was curiously shaped in a way that made it look eerily similar to a human skull.

"Neverland" Rapunzel exlplained, "Behind it, Skull" she pointed to the mountain, "Legends say that the mountain was created from the fossilised skull of thousand-year-old giant"

Jack didn't believe it, but he shrugged his shoulders in response."Cute story"

Rapunzel turned to Hiccup, "Be careful as you land, Hiccup. We are in Eastern territory, the laws are much more lax here"

* * *

Neverland  
Eastern Kingdom

After the world war, once the dust settled, the East was the worst affected kingdom. Knowing that many valuable materials and minerals could be mined from the caves of Skull, refugees flooded to Neverland hoping to make a living. Soon, the city had become overrun. The people were desperate, often orphaned, and many turned to crime.

"You'll find that this place is filled with unsavoury types" Rapunzel warned the group "Ruffians, thugs, outlaws"

"Remind us where we just broke out from blondie" Jack responded "I was practically raised by outlaws, we should be fine" Eyeing a few orphans running their way he warned "Watch your walllets"

Turns out the orphans weren't interested in their money at all, they were just fascinated by Toothless, dragons were so rare in the world taht most thought them extinct. Regardless, Jack's hands never left his pockets.

Eventually, their walk brought them to bar, the Snuggly Duckling. "Here" Rapunzel stated

Even Hiccup was a little shocked "Here? This place is a little lowbrow for your buyer don't you think?"

"We are only meant to wait here" Rapunzel explained "My buyer will send us a representatitve when he is ready"

The group could only stare as a man dressed like cupid was thrown out of the bar, practically marinated with the smell of alcohol

"This is a shitehole!" Merida exclaimed in disgust "The hell are we meant to do while we wait?"

* * *

Two words: Bot Fight.

Two miniature robots were locked in vicious combat. The blue robot raised a saw like appendage and disarmed its foe before decapitating it. Merida whooped with joy, she had bet on the winner. Again.

"My bot has won again!" she cried with drunken glee "Now, shortstack (She tossed her glass to Hiccup) pour me another"

"You know what?" Hiccup said, he too was a little drunk "I'm actually starting to like you"

Outside, Rapunzel could see the sea from her view. She stared out at the churning waters, hypnotised by its waves.

"Hey" It was Jack "You would not believe how much they charge for the basics out here" He smirked "You weren't kidding when you said they were criminals" he sat down beside her.

Rapunzel as usual was all business "This is taking too long" she said irritably, "His contact should be here by now"

"You haven't made a lot of deals have you Rapunzel?" Jack asked her. Rapunzel shook her head as a reply "This is a common tactic. Trust me, I do it all the time"

Rapunzel smiled a little, thinking back of fond memories "Well, my father was never one for diplomacy"

"Who, Mor'du?"

The blonde girl's smile disappeared, replaced by her usual stoicism "Mor'du is not my father"

She looked back out to sea "When I was a girl, Mor'du attacked my home city, he single-handedly slaughtered the population, he killed my parents in front of me, but he kept me alive. He gave me over to one of his servants, a hag named Gothel" Her voice cracked as she spoke "She tortured me, turned me into a weapon"

When she looked back at him, Jack could see it in her eyes. Rapunzel wasn't souless, or cold-hearted. Her eyes glimmered with barely formed tears, she was broken, for most of her life Rapunzel would have never been close to anyone, and suddenly, Jack felt sorry for her.

"When I found out that Mor'du was going to wipe out the entire Western Kingdom for Drago I... I couldn't just stand by and let it happen"

Taking a moment to breathe, she reached out to touch Jack's staff "This is such a strange thing. It's so unremarkable and yet, you'd risk your life for it. Why?"

"Well, for starters it helps me with my powers" Jack explained, "For as long as I can remember, I had a gift, a gift to control ice and the wind"

"What do you with such power?" Rapunzel asked him

"Lots of things" Jack replied "Snowball fights, ice rinks, you know, you can have a lot of fun"

"I was raised as a warrior and an assassin Jack, I don't do fun" Rapunzel remarked

"Well that explains a lot" Jack smirked. He tapped the ground with his staff, and soon they were standing on a patch of slippery ice

"Come on punzie" Jack smiled "Have a little fun". Taking her hand in his, the two started to slide about on the ice. Turns out Raunzel wasn't so graceful, she kept slipping and stumbling. As time went on she started to chuckle, which soon erupted into proper laughter. Jack had to be honest, there was something about Rapunzel that drew him to her.

They stopped skating for a moment, Rapunzel was smiling like a giddy schoolgirl. It was one the first time in a long time that she had ever done something fun, for the first time in forever, she was enjoying herself.

The pair stared into each others eyes, neither quite sure what to say to the other. Still holding her hand, Jack leaned towards her without realising what he was doing. This was too close for Rapunzel, who separated them with a shove "No!"

"Hey, what the..." Jack had a knife held to his neck before he said anything else.

"Don't think I don't know your reputation Jack Frost" Rapunzel hissed "I am not some doe-eyed bimbo that you can win over like some prize!"

"That's not was I was doing" Jack protested

An explosion from the bar caught their attention. "Crap" Jack muttered.

The two ran back inside to the scene of a brawl. Merida must have somehow angered Toothless because he was now chasing her around the bar, spitting fire at her as she dodged. Jack intervened, throwing a blast of ice, effectively muzzling the dragon. Hiccup soon joined the fray, swinging a sword that was coated in flames. Jack parried an attack meant for Merida before separating the two with a gust of wind.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Jack demanded to know

"This little freak is slagging off things he doesn't understand!" Merida furiously pointed a Hiccup

"That is true!" Hiccup snapped back

"He has no respect!" she yelled

"That is also true" Hiccup anrgrily replied

"Okay" Jack started "Calm down, the both of you. You're both drunk..."

"Keep calling me a freak, bitch!" Hiccup yelled, interrupting him "I dare you!"

"Hiccup calm down!" said Jack

"I didn't ask to be made!" Hiccup yelled hysterically, crying angry, drunken tears "I didn't ask to be born in a vat, I didn't ask to be cut open and be put back together over and over again. I didn't ask to be a monster!"

"Hiccup, no one is calling you a monster" Jack gently said, trying to calm him down

Hiccup pointed his still-flaming sword at Merida "She called me a freak!" He pointed it at Rapunzel "She called me half-bred!" He stared angrily at Jack "Let's see how smug you all are when I've cut you up into little pieces!"

He lashed out with his sword, Jack effortlessly blocked it with his staff "Think of the money Hiccup!" Jack snapped "You just need to last one more night and you'll be rich!" Hiccup paused "You'll be rich" Jack repeated

Hiccup stared at the white-haired boy for what seemed like a long time before lowering his sword, its flame dying as it retracting into a pocket-sized device "Fine" he said "But I can't promise that I won't kill you all when this is over"

"See, that's your problem" Jack snapped "This is why none of you have any friends" he looked at Rapunzel and Merida as well, "Within five minutes of meeting someone you're already trying to kill them"

"All I want is Drago dead!" Merida snapped "We have travelled halfway around the world, and that's still nowhere closer to becoming reality!" She stormed out of the doors

"Merida!" Jack called after her. Rapunzel just put a hand on his chest "Let her go"

A loud squawk caught everyones attention. Perched on the window was a large scarlet macaw, it began to speak to them.

"Miss Rapunzel, my boss will see you now"

* * *

**Authors Note**

Thanks for the reviews. I forgot to clarify that I don't own any of this material, all rights belong to Disney, DreamWorks and Marvel Studios.

I realise that my story is a bit too similar to the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy. While I will try to change it every now and then, I still am going to rely on the events of the film for the primary story. Thanks again for making me realise this.

So, who do you think the collector will be?


	10. Chapter 10

**Chakra**

* * *

Neverland  
Eastern Kingdom

The talking macaw led them to a large, awe-inspiring building of some form of exotic architecture. Inside, the roof reached far, high above their heads. The building was filled from top to bottom with cages and display cases in an all manner of shapes and sizes. Some contained artifacts, weapons and scriptures of civilisations long lost, some were filled by by animals of wide variety of colours and shapes and sizes, some were stuffed, some were live.

Toothless stared down a creature that was caged on the ground. The beast inside was eyeballing the Night Fury, its blank white eyes seemingly recognizing the animal, it hissed at him, its long serpentine body rattled with its spines.

"Well," Jack said, breaking the silence "This is only slightly creepy", as he swerved to avoid a case containing an ebony black oil-lamp.

"The boss holds the world record for the largest collection of fauna, flora and relics" the parrot elaborated. He perched on a table in the center of the room, grandly gesturing to a man with his wing.

The man was dark-skinned, his bony frame made his black and red garments seem large and baggy on him. An ebony black mitre rested upon his head, adorned with a blood-red feather.

"Ladies and gents" said the parrot "Allow me to present... Jafar. The richest man in all the Eastern Kingdom"

Jafar turned to them, resting his golden cobra shaped sceptre against a display case, he strode towards in calm, confident strides.

He took Rapunzel's hand in his "My dear Rapunzel" he spoke with a velvety baritone, planting a light kiss on her knuckles "How delightful to finally meet each other in the flesh"

The old man had a faint look in his eye as he looked at Rapunzel that Jack noticed, it left him wanting to punch the lecherous sleaze in the face. Rapunzel must have noticed it as well, for she pulled her hand, slowly but firmly out of Jafar's grip. Her voice was clear and mildly irritated "Shall we skip the pleasantries Jafar? We have what we discussed"

Jafar looked over her shoulder to view the group, his gaze settling on a certain dragon "My word..." he exclaimed in a measured tone. He walked past the blonde till he was standing less than a few inches away from Toothless. The dragon arched his back and gave a quiet growl, uncormfortable under the man's scruntinising view.

"I must admit, oh mighty dragon" Jafar said giving Toothless a small bow, to the dragon's surprise "I thought your species had all but been wiped out" He spun on his heel to look at the others "My friends" he said, flashing a smile that showed off his obviously artificial teeth "I must pay you extra so that I may own your dragon's body" A fairly more audible growl brought his attention back to Toothless "Upon the moment of his death of course" he appeased. Toothless gave off a surprising human look of contemplation before shrugging his shoulders with a funny "hmph" noise.

"You realise he'll just gonna make a stuffed figurine out of you bud" Hiccup said

Jafar looked at the smaller individual "Oh, I'm sorry" he said "Is he your pet?"

Toothless bared his teeth with an angered snarl. He hated it when people called him a "pet"

Rapunzel stood between the two of them, and spoke to Jafar "Jafar, we've have travelled across the world for this orb. It would be in our best interests if we found out if it was truly the one you were after"

Jafar stroked his twisted jet-black goatee before replying "Very well. Let us see what you have brought me"

Rapunzel nodded at Jack, who reached into his bag, and drew the orb from it in a grandiose manner, before abruptly dropping it on his toe

"Ow, dammit!"

* * *

Merida, still steaming from her copious intake of alcohol, stumbled to a door in the Neverland slums before kicking it in. Her rude entrance was met by a generous number of guns and crossbows pointing in her direction.

"Ah" She said, her drunkeness slurring her speech "Am lookin fer Eret"

Her call was answered by a man of impressive height and physique, a tattoo decorated his chin "And what might you want from me, Eret, son of Eret?"

"Yoo sen messages rye?" Merida questioned

"Yes, that I do" he confirmed

"Ah wanna senna message" Merida demanded

* * *

"Tell me, my new friends" Jafar asked as he hooked the orb into a strange mechanism "Are you aware of the legend surrounding this orb?" His question was met with blank stares "Very well then". He flicked a switch and, like a spherical rubix cube, the orb began to spin and contort.

"In the beginning" Jafar began "At the dawn of creation there were seven supernovas, and in turn from their fires came seven gems of concentrated power, known as Chakras"

"These Chakras, each one unique in its properties, were highly coveted, one such gem being the Fire Chakra. This specific Chakra could only be held and wielded by beings of exceptional power. Its power is complex, it draws those with corruptible hearts to hold it, but upon physical contact the Chakra, if it cannot wield its power shall be incinerated in a flash of fire. Entire continents could be mowed down like wheat in a field"

"Once, a group of scholars had reportedly been able to share its power amongst themselves, but even they were consumed by its fire"

The machine was finished, levitating in the magnet was a small gem. It resembled a ruby, but it glowed, literally radiating energy from its core.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Jafar said "Beyond compare"

"This is fascinating mister" Hiccup interrupted "But if it's all the same to you I'd like to get paid now"

"Of course" Jafar gestured the group to accompany him to his vault where he stored his money. While their backs were turned however, someone was edging towards the Chakra.

Looking back over his shoulder, Jafar was surprised to see who it was "Iago!" he called in a stern voice "Keep away from there"

The macaw just scrabbled closer, utterly mesmerised by the gem's light "But it's so pretty boss"

Stretching out a leg, he gripped the Chakra in his claws.

And promptly burst into flames.

Fireballs burst out of the gem like popcorn, igniting things in all directions. Iago gave a tortured blend of a squawk and a human scream as the angry crimson red flames burned his feathers and flesh to a crisp before he exploded into a bright and powerful firestorm.

Wrapping his fireproof body around his friends, Toothless charged out the nearest window, taking the brunt as they fell down a storey to the hard ground below.

A full ten minutes must have past before Toothless uncurled himself. Rapunzel and Jack were immediately on their feet, running back into the gutted smoking ruins of what was once the largest collection in all the East. Finding the Chakra still being held by the magnetic force of the two orb halves, Rapunzel forced the orb back together before running back out, Jack joined her after rummaging for his staff, which by some enchanted miracle had survived the inferno.

"We were stupid to think that Jafar could safeguard this!" Rapunzel cursed

"Why do you still have it?!" Hiccup cried incredulously, his violent brush with death having left him a little shaken.

"We can't exactly leave it in there" Jack argued

"I can't believe you had that in your purse!"

Jack was offended "It's not a purse, it's a satchel!"

Rapunzel broke them up, "We have to go back west" she said "We can give this to the Western Guard, maybe they'll be able to contain it"

"Are you kidding me?" Hiccup cried "We're wanted by the west, we may as well just give it to Drago"

"So what, he can destroy the world?" Jack retorted

"Since when were you such a saint?" Hiccup argued "What's the world ever done for you? Why would you want to save it?"

"Because I happen to live in it!" Jack snapped

"Jack," Rapunzel pleaded "Please, we can't let Drago get his hands on the Chakra. We need to take your ship, go back west and give it to the Western Guard"

"You're right" Jack agreed "Or..." he continued "We can give it to someone that won't arrest us, or kill us for a lot of money"

"What?" Rapunzel said slightly shocked

"I think it's a fair compromise" Jack defended

Rapunzel's face had turned from a mask of confusion into one of disgust "I can't believe you. You stupid, dishonourable..."

A mechanical wail from above them drowned out the rest of her insults. Looking up, the group saw a massive black ship hovering above the city. A small swarm od smaller ships spilled out from its belly.

Rapunzel recognized the ship, and she felt a creeping sense of panic settle in her gut.

Drago was here.

* * *

**Authors Note**

Sorry this one took so long guys. Exams have been a real pain.


	11. Chapter 11

**Murphy's Law**

* * *

Neverland  
Eastern Kingdom

"At last!" cried a voice from in front of the group. Jack looked and found the unmistakeable mop of red that was Merida. She had equipped herself with a bow and quiver and had seemed to have found balance in her drunken haze "I shall have my justice!"

"You called Drago?!" Jack cried incredulously

A trio of small jet-black crafts touched down in front of them. Hatches hissed open as Drago, Macintosh and a pair of soldiers emerged. Rapunzel took the opportunity to run away as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Jack!" called a voice from the crowd. Jack turned to find the one person he really did not want to see. North.

"Don't move!" North yelled at him. With a muttered curse, Jack moved. He sprinted after Rapunzel, Hiccup and Toothless following behind him.

This all went unnoticed by Drago, who was currently occupied with the ginger drunk that yelled before him.

"You are the one that sent the message?" he asked Merida, the mild sound of irritation in his voice.

"Drago Bludvist!" Merida howled at him, drawing an arrow in anticipation "You. Killed. My. Family! And now, I'm going to kill you!"

The roar of an engine disturbed the two enemies, looking for the source of the sound, they sighted a motorcycle speeding away down the street, accompanied overhead by a flying white-haired boy and a dragon.

Recognising the cycle's blonde rider, Macintosh was the first to react, "That's Rapunzel! She's escaping with the orb" He barked orders at his men, who immediately ran to their jets to pursue. Macintosh retreated to the third craft, Drago turning to follow.

Merida gave a cry of outrage, and let a single arrow fly. It made contact with Drago's shoulder. He wasn't hurt, but he stopped in his tracks.

"Macintosh" he growled "Retrieve the orb while I deal with this wench"

Turning back to face Merida, the girl fired another arrow. This one was blocked by Drago's mechanical arm. Holding his metal limb out in front of him like a shield, Drago charged her. Merida fired a few more arrows but they bounced harmlessly off Drago's arm as he ploughed into her, sending her flying into a wall.

With a feral grunt, Merida forced herself back onto her feet, firing off more arrows with a battle cry. Drago deflected her shots with his metal arm or caught them in the thick leather of his cloak.

Merida circled the larger man, firing at every possible angle she could get. Some arrows were avoided, some were deflected or caught, some of them managed to find their mark, but the latter blows were barely registered by their brutish target.

Running out of arrows, Merida, fuelled with adrenaline and rage, charged her opponent, swinging her bow like a bat. She missed of course, her foe having had years of experience in hand-to-hand combat. With expert precision, Drago struck a blow at Merida's wrist, and the bow fell from her hand as gave a cry of pain. He delivered a series of brutal blows with his fists, both metal and flesh, to her stomach, her ribs, her jaw before swinging his artificial arm and send her flying with a backhanded blow.

Merida barely had time to register lying on the ground before Drago was upon her again, effortlessly picking her up as if she weighed no more than a doll, as he pinned her against the wall by the neck.

Merida futilely swung at Drago, the man barely feeling her blows as his mechanical hand kept applying an increasingly painful amount of pressure on her neck. Darkness began to fill her vision as her eyes darted about, trying to find a means of saving herself. Sighting a stray arrow that had embedded itself into the wall, Merida wrenched it free, before swinging it at Drago with every ounce of her remaining strength. It made contact, sinking itself into the soft space between his neck and collarbone. With a painful grunt, Drago dropped her, as she fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Enraged at the thought of being wounded, Drago attacked her again with an animalistic yell. He swung an open hand, and Merida's nose broke with a sickening crunch. He threw her over his shoulder, and Merida cried in agony as she felt her shoulder dislocate. Her head cracked against the ground. Drago was strangling her again, squeezing the life out of her.

Merida couldn't even fight back as her vision went black, as her killer gave one final taunt:

"I do not recall killing your family. I doubt I will remember killing you"

* * *

It was fairly easy for Rapunzel to acquire an escape vehicle. By the time the others had caught up to her, she had subdued the motorcycle's previous owner and was already about to speed off.

"Wait!" Jack called. Rapunzel paused, despite every fibre of her being telling her to run, run and get as far away from Drago as possible. The white-haired man passed her a small radio. "Hiccup and I have similar ones, I'll be on channel 1, he'll be 2" he elaborated, "We'll fly above you while we get back to the _Moon_"

Rapunzel gave a brief nod before revving the cycle's engine into life, wincing as she realised how loud it was. She sped off towards where the group landed the _Crescent Moon_, but she had to go slower than she have liked, avoiding pedestrians and navigating Neverland's labyrinthine streets.

She heard the dreaded sound of a jet engine over her head, silently scolding herself for being somehow too conspicuous. Throwing caution to the wind, she sped up as Jack's voice crackled from the radio fastened to her hip, "Heads up Blondie, we'll try to keep them off you"

High above her, Hiccup wasn't pleased. "What'd you tell her that for?" he asked incredulously

"Come on, man" came Jack's reply, "You're flying on the back of a dragon"

"And they're in metal ships" Hiccup argued "_Armoured_ metal ships"

"I thought Night Furies were meant to fearless assassins, infamous for their accuracy" Jack taunted

"I'm not a Night Fury" Hiccup retorted

"He is"

Toothless, having being secretly riled up by Jack's challenge shot skywards, braking as he fell into a divebomb. Hiccup spat profanities at the dragon as Toothless gave off an unearthly scream, its echolocating properties allowing him to see perfectly despite moving faster than the human eye could register. His scream ceased as he fired a shot at one of the jets wings as he sped past it, its force and accuracy making the entire ship explode.

Hiccup stop cursing and cried "Hell yeah!" with a mad grin on his face. The duo sped off again to destroy the others.

Jack, not wanting to be bested, willed himself to fly faster, firing ice at a ships engine. It stopped and fell spinning out of the sky. Jack's feelings of accomplishment were short lived however, as another speeding jet collided into him, and he found himself plastered across the front window of the goon's ship like a damn fly. More than a little miffed, Jack slammed the butt of his staff against the window, ice and frost forming from the impact, the reinforced glass shattered from the dramatic change in temperature and Jack flew in, fly-kicking the pilot in the head before he threw his unfortunate foe out of the window. Planting himself in the pilot's seat, Jack seized control of the ship and he flew after the others, gunning them down with bullets and rockets.

The ships radar pinged as several more of Drago's men appeared. Jack reached for his radio "Bad news Punzie" he said "We've got other guys inbound"

"Jack, some of them have cut me off" came Rapunzel's voice, "I can't make it to the _Moon_. I'll try to lose them outside the city"

Jack, launching himself out from the ship and hurriedly looked down for Rapunzel. She was right, a pair of ships were chasing her away from the airfield where the _Crescent Moon_ was. He watched in shock as she off out of the city down towards the cliff trails.

"Rapunzel, that bike's not meant for off-road" he warned

"No choice" was her blunt reply.

Jack growled in frustration as he desperately tried to catch up with Rapunzel and her pursuers, while simultaneously fighting off the ships that were trying to kill him.

On the ground, Rapunzel knew her situation was growing dire. Her motorcycle rattled in protest at being sped across uneven terrain at such speed, as she weaved about trying to avoid the gunfire that ricocheted around her. Her radio whined, "Sister"

Rapunzel would have probably frozen if she hadn't been driving at 170mph "Finally" the voice continued "Took a while to track your frequency. I must say, I'm bitterly disappointed. Out of all our little, twisted family... I hated you the least"

"Macintosh, brother" Rapunzel replied "Please, we cannot let Drago get his hands on this orb. He will kill us all"

"No, not all" Macintosh argued "You'll already be dead"

Jack could only look on in horror as a rocket exploded within deadly proximity of Rapunzel's motorcycle. He could only watch as he saw her limp body fly through the air, over the cliffside and into the freezing sea below.

* * *

**Author's Note**

UUUuuuuuuuuggggggghhhh, finally! Sorry this took so long. I've been stuck with exams and writers block

Also for those who don't know, Murphy's Law is essentially: "Anything that can go wrong, _will_ go wrong"


	12. Chapter 12

**Darkest Hour**

* * *

Jack froze. He was so in shock that he even fell a few feet out of the air. He regained his composure, and sped down the salty waters, practically screaming into his radio.

"Hiccup! Rapunzel's down! I'm going to help her, regroup!"

"On my way" came the reply.

Jack stopped his divebomb off the cliff, mere inches above the water before he dove in. The cold, salty sting of the water blurred his vision, but it didn't take him long to sight the distinctive golden locks of Rapunzel's hair. Holding her close, he propeeled their bodies out of the water like a cannonball. They softing landed on the ground, where Hiccup and Toothless were waiting for them.

"She's not breathing" Jack started panicking, laying her down as he began CPR.

"Jack..." Hiccup started

"No!" Jack cut him off "She's alive!"

"Jack, c'mon" Hiccup continued "She's good, I know that, but she fell off a cliff, into water. No one survives a fall like that. Cybernetics can only do so much"

"She. Is. Alive" Jack repeated, a dangerous edge surfacing in his voice

Hiccup looked at him with mixed look of irritation and pity "They got away with the orb"

Jack didn't even look him in the eye "I don't care"

"You don't care?"

"No"

"Jack, come on!"

"No" Jack's head snapped back up to look at his friend with a piercing blue glare "I don't care!" He lowered his head as he continued his attempts to revive Rapunzel "I don't expect you to understand so get out of here!"

Hiccup wasn't too sure whether or not to hit the grieving wreck for that gut punch. _I don't expect you to understand_. Deep inside, Hiccup knew that Jack was kind of right. There hadn't been anyone bar Toothless that Hiccup had met in his short life that he would have grieved for. Hell, he didn't like people, period. But it still hurt coming from Jack, who so far had been the only sapien to show him a shred of decency.

"Goodbye Jack" said Hiccup as he turned and walked to Toothless, who was sitting a ways off.

Suddenly, a net fell from the sky and landed on top of Jack and Rapunzel.

Hiccup sprang back to him, "Jack!" he yelled as he pulled a device from his pocket. With the click of a button, a sword was now in his hands. He swung the flaming blade at the net, only to recoil in pain as 100 volts coursed through his body.

The same electric shock struck Jack too. He convulsed as the electric shock shook his body, and he crumpled into a tangled heap next to Rapunzel.

A thin but durable cord attached to the net grew taut as its captives were lifted into the air into a crimson red ship hovering overhead.

Hiccup came to a few minutes later, Toothless nuzzling him worriedly. The boy scratched the dragon reassuredly on the nose as he pulled himself up.

"Dammit bud" Hiccup grunted "That must've been North and his men"

He clambered onto the dragon's back "Let's find Merida" he said.

Hiccup hoped Merida was alive, he kind of needed someone to blame.

* * *

_Sleigh_  
Unconfirmed Territory

Jack came to in a dark room, some kind of hanger he figured, curled up next to Rapunzel. He could hear her breathing in short pants. The electric shock I got must have restarted her heart or something he concluded.

He spoke "Rapunzel, are you alright?"

Her voice came back in hoarse whisper "Your knife's digging into me"

"I don't have a knife" Jack responded confusedly. Both of their faces flushed with colour as they realised the implication, and they rolled away from each other.

"What happened?" Rapunzel asked, her voice sounding a bit stronger as she shifted into a sitting position.

Jack sat against the hull, "I saw you fly off a cliff into the ocean, and for some reason... I don't know what came over me, but I couldn't let you die" He looked at Rapunzel, holding her emerald gaze "I felt something, deep inside myself. Something almost... heroic"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes with a smile. Jack gave a snow-white grin, glad that she was fine.

"What happened to the orb?" she asked

Jack awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, trying not to look her in the eye "Yeah... they got away with it"

"What?!"

A door hissed open. Both Jack and Rapunzel turned to see a small group of mercenaries spill into the hanger, their weapons pointing at them.

"Hey Bunny" Jack smiled at their leader, "It's been a while"

"Rack off you bloody show-pony" Aster snapped "The boss wants to see you"

* * *

_Great Black_  
Unconfirmed Territory

Drago proudly held the orb within view of the video transmission, Macintosh and Dagur standing in the background. He had finally obtained Mor'du price.

"The orb" Drago said, "As promised"

Mor'du bared his teeth into a distrurbingly human smile "Excellent. Bring it to Blackwood, and we shall discuss our business further"

"Of course" said Drago. "However, now that I know that this orb contains the mythical Fire Chakra, I wonder why I need you anymore"

Mor'du's blood-red eye narrowed in thinly veiled anger "Bludvist, I would reconsider that choice if I were you"

With his two powerful hands, Drago wrenched the orb into two pieces, and gazed at the Chakra, hungrily staring into its crimson glow.

"Master, you can't!" cried Dagur, "Mor'du is the most powerful being in the entire known world"

"Not anymore" Drago growled

Grabbing the Chakra with his bare hand, red flames began to spread across Drago's as he roared in pain and determination. He swung the Chakra down upon the back of his mechanical hand. The Chakra embedded itself into the metal, and the flames ceased.

Picking up his elephant hook, Drago looked back to Mor'du "You call me a fool. You call me a mortal, but I will unleash a generation's worth of fury and rage upon the Western Kingdom, and then Mor'du (he pointed his elephant hook at the screen) I'm coming for you!"

Mor'du's enraged stare was intense enough to melt diamonds. The transmission ended.

"You're going to kill my father?" Macintosh questioned

"Shall you stand aginst me?" Drago challenged

A bloodthristy smile grew on the younger man's face "Are you kidding me? You kill him, and I'll give you the whole damn world"


	13. Chapter 13

**A Quiet Word**

* * *

Neverland  
Eastern Kingdom

It wasn't hard to find Merida, Hiccup only had to follow the carnage. He found her lying in the middle of the street, already blanketed in the city's filth. He had quickly assessed her injuries. Her nose was broken, her left shoulder was dislocated, several bruises had formed on her neck and face, and judging from her laboured breathing, he suspected bruised or cracked ribs.

It had taken a full twenty minutes to resuscitate her. Frankly Hiccup had given up after the first five, but Toothless was adamant, and he often got his way.

Hiccup would never have admitted it to anyone, but he was kind of glad that Merida had survived her clash with Drago, yeah he found her to be an undeniable pain in the ass but he actually liked her confident, if somewhat psychotic personality. That and she's hilarious when drunk.

Toothless called Hiccup with a humming purr. Merida had woken up.

"I need to fix your shoulder" Hiccup bluntly stated

Merida eyed him warily, "Fine" was all she said.

Hiccup took a firm hold of her arm and shoulder and, without so much as a word, shoved it back into place.

Merida gave off a involuntary hiss of pain "Christ!"

Hiccup didn't apologise "How do feel?"

Merida gritted her teeth and replied "Fine"

"Oh, well that's good" Hiccup said, before he punched her in her good shoulder "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Merida wordlessly turned to look at him. Hiccup was ranting now "Jack and Rapunzel were captured by mercenaries, and Drago's got that damn Chakra thing! All because you decided to take on a goddamn army! Are you just stupid, or do actually want to die?! Does your family mean that much to you that you'll just die for them?!"

Merida turned her head away and stared down at her feet "I'm sorry"

This interrupted Hiccup's flow. He hadn't actually expected this reaction from her.

Merida continued to speak, her voice cracking, tears forming in her eyes "All my anger, all my rage, just to cover up for my loss" She looked up at Hiccup, openly crying "I miss them Hiccup. I miss them so much" Her face dropped, and she sobbed into her knees.

Hiccup suddenly felt very guilty. He wasn't too sensitive to other people's feelings, and he never usually cared. But recently, having travelled across the world with the little band of felons that their group was, he had to admit he was softening up. He awkwardly placed what he hoped was a reassuring hand on her shoulder "I'm, I'm sorry. I don't know how you feel but, I'm sorry"

Toothless gave an apathetic snort. "What?" Hiccup sheepishly demanded.

A growl from Toothless, Hiccup reacted incredulously "Wait, you just want us to leave. And leave Jack and Blondie wih those psychos?

Toothless grunted. "We don't know they're dead!" Hiccup argued "We can save them"

Toothless barked incredulously, before growling at his friend, his ears pointing up to emphasise his point.

"Yes, I know there's only the two of us"

"Wrong" Merida spoke up.

She shakily rose to her feet, drying her eyes with a dirty sleeve "There's three of us"

Hiccup smirked, looking at Toothless. The dragon's wings and ears drooped, the look in his eyes transcended the language barrier.

This would not end well.

* * *

The _Sleigh_  
Unconfirmed Territory

Jack struggled to his feet, he was barely through the door when North grabbed him by his hood and had flung him across the room like a ragdoll, colliding with the hull.

"You betrayed me" North said with a venomous snarl. Alarm bells rang in Jack's mind. This was bad, North had two types of anger, there was the raging anger, and then there was a cold, tranquil anger. The latter he reserved only for things that actually made him angry. "Lucky me" Jack sarcastically muttered.

"I can't believe you would do this to me" North said "After all I have done for you..."

"All you've done for me?" Jack repeated bitterly, "You kidnapped me! You've kept me here against my will for five years! You've threatened to kill me whenever I set so much as a toe out of line!"

"I saved your life!" North yelled "You were nearly dead when I found you. You could barely remember your own name, let alone your family. So I brought you in, I gave you food, shelter, a career"

"Anyone can do that!" Jack retorted "What I needed was a father, and were never that!"

"Well I'm sorry!" North snapped "I can't be parental, not with mercenaries, so you will straighten up, and fall in line, or I will have to make an example out of you"

"What will you do?" Jack challenged

"I will kill you. Then I will feed your carcass to _moi__ deti_"

Jack stood straight, and looked the larger man square in the eye with his ice-blue glare "You do that, and you miss out on the biggest deal of your life"

North raised a questioning eyebrow. "Have you ever heard of a Chakra?" Jack asked

"You mean the orb?" North scoffed "I am not a suicidal man Jack, I am not going to steal from Drago"

"What if I told you we have an insider?" Jack persisted

North scratched his bearded chin. Jack had to supress a smile, as he recognised his tell.

"The girl?" North asked

"Yes, the girl" Jack confirmed "She used to work for Drago, she knows the layout of his ship like the back of her hand"

North contemplated his mercenaries chances for a second, before clapping Jack on the back with a booming laugh. "I knew that you had guts Jack, that is why I kept you as a boy"

Jack smiled, knowing that he had avoided death, again.

A loud thud shook the room.

"What was that?" Jack nervously asked

North reached for the radio at his belt "Pilot! What was that?!"

"There's a dragon flying around outside" came the crackling reply

Jack raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"I am coming up there" North called, he turned the dial on his radio before speaking again "Aster, bring the girl up to the bridge"

Hearing Aster's confirmation, North turned to Jack "Come with me"

The two rushed up to the bridge, where Rapunzel and a small troop of mercenaries were already waiting for them.

"They fired a few shots, but they didn't damage us" the pilot reported.

Looking out the window, Jack recognised the unmistakable shape of a Night Fury. Riding him were Hiccup and Merida.

Hiccup was holding a megaphone, Merida was holding a very big gun.


	14. Chapter 14

**Pep Talk**

* * *

"Attention, ladies and gentlemen!" Hiccup called through his megaphone "You currently have two of my friends as your prisoners. I'd like them back"

He gestured to Merida behind him "My flame-haired friend here is holding what is known as a Red Death" "A weapon of my own design" he added smugly.

"What?" North muttered confusedly

"If you don't hand over our friends she will, and I quote 'Tear your ship a new one. A very big new one'" he threatened

"He is bluffing" North decided

"I'll give you to the count of five.

_"One..."_

"Uh, North. He's not bluffing" Jack worriedly said

_"Two..."_

"Of course he is" North argued

_"Three..."_

Jack sprung forward, and knocked the pilot out his seat, and took control of the radio.

_"Four..."_

"Hiccup!" Jack shouted over the radio "Hiccup! It's me, we're fine, we figured it out!"

"Oh hey Jack" came Hiccup's alarmingly cheery reply "How you doing"

* * *

"You call that figured out?!" Hiccup questioned "You want us to rob the people that just kicked our asses?!"

Jack and Rapunzel had managed to convince their wannabe saviours to come aboard the _Sleigh_. They all now sat down in a circle in the lower hangar, where Jack was trying to organise a plan.

"Yes" said Jack in a blunt tone

"That's stupid"

"You wanna talk about what's stupid? How about rescuing us by blowing us up!"

"We were only going to blow you up if they didn't turn you over" Merida defended

"How were they meant to do that when you only gave them five seconds?!"

"Okay, I didn't have the time to work out the finer details" Hiccup snapped. He turned to Toothless "This is what I get for trying to do the good thing for once"

Toothles just grunted with rolling eyes and shrugged shoulders "Don't be a smartass bud, you still went along with it"

"Guys" Rapunzel interuppted "What's important is that we get the mercenaries to the Western Kingdom to stop Drago"

"So what, North can just sell it one to someone even worse?" Hiccup questioned

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" Jack answered

"We have to stop Drago" Rapunzel repeated "Billions of people will die if we don't"

"How?" Hiccuo asked

"I have a plan" said Jack

"You have a plan?" Hiccup repeated questioningly

"Yes"

"I don't believe you"

"I have... part of a plan" Jack admitted

"What percentage of a plan?" Merida asked

"You don't get to ask questions after that stunt you pulled back in Neverland" Rapunzel snapped

"I just helped save you guys!" Merida argued

"Mer, we have already established that destroying the ship that we were on does not qualify as saving" Jack explained

"When was this established?" Merida demanded

"Less than five minutes ago!" Jack answered, a disbelieving look on his face

"Sorry, I wasn't listening" Merida sheepishly replied

Rapunzel groaned with frustration.

"She's right though, what percentage?" Hiccup pressed the question

"I don't know, twelve?"

"Twelve percent?" Hiccup repeated, before breaking into hysterical laughter

Jack groaned and rubbed his temples "Could that laugh be any more fake?"

"That's not a plan" Hiccup cried

"It's barely a concept" Rapunzel agreed

"You're taking his side now?" Jack asked

A whine from Toothless spurred a confused reaction from Hiccup.

"What do you mean it's still better than eleven percent. Twelve's still a bad number out of 100%"

"Thank you Toothless" thanked Jack, petting the dragon's neck "You see, Toothless is the only one here that has a clue" he gestured to the dragon, only to look away facepalming as Toothless took that moment to lick his privates.

"Look, guys, come on" Jack began in a more subdued tone "North is going to be here in like, two seconds to hear this really good plan of ours. I need your help. I look around, and do you what I see? Losers" A poisonous look from Merida made him stumble on his words "I mean, I see people who have lost things in life, and we have, we all have. We've lost our homes, our families, our chances of having normal lives. And usually life takes more than it gives but today is different. Today life has given us a chance"

"To do what?" Merida asked

"To take a stand" answered Jack "To stand strong in the face of madmen like Drago. I for one am not gonna just stand by and watch him wipe out an entire civilisation"

"But Jack" Hiccup interuppted, his voice unusually quiet "What you're asking, stopping Drago, it's suicide. You're asking us to die"

Jack just stood there, his bravado spent "Yeah, I guess I am" he admitted, defeated.

He sat down on a box, his head hanging low, not looking anyone in the eye.

"Jack" Rapunzel spoke up. Jack raised his head to stare into her emerald eyes

"I have spent my entire life surrounded by those I hate and distrust" she continued. She gave a faint smile, "I would be honoured to die among friends"

Merida was next to speak up "You're a good lad Jack, you've show bravery worthy of the Dunbroch people. I will fight alongside you, and no matter what happens, I shall find peace"

The three turned expectantly to Hiccup and Toothless. Lab experiment and dragon looked at each other and seemed to share a silent conversation before Hiccup spoke "What the hell, I have no idea how long I going to live anyway"

Toothless flashed a gumsy grin at the group. Jack couldn't help but smile back.

"Now then" Hiccup said, interuppting the moment "What is the plan?"


	15. Chapter 15

**Let Slip the Dogs of War**

* * *

The _Sleigh_  
Unconfirmed Territory

"All right, listen up!" called Jack.

It had taken about ten minutes for the team to come up with a solid plan, and upon telling North, all of the mercenaries had gathered in the hangar, while Jack and Rapunzel explained the plan.

"Long story short" Jack continued, "Drago has something called a Fire Chakra, a dangerous and powerful weapon"

"It can destroy any form of matter" Rapunzel elaborated "The larger the target, the more damage is caused"

"All Drago needs to do is point that thing at the ground and blam, the people, the plants, the wildlife..."

"Everything will die"

"So we make things hell for Bludvist. We make sure he doesn't land"

Jack opened up a holographic screen of the aerial battle plans "Hiccup will lead a team to destroy the Great Black's starboard hull, where the _Crescent Moon_ and the _Yeti_ (North's ship) will enter"

"Won't Bludvist have hundreds of soldiers inside?" Aster questioned

"What's the matter rabbit?" Merida mockingly asked "You chicken?"

A smirk from both Merida and Aster revealed the good nature of the mockery, a friendly rivalry already forming.

"Once we're aboard, Drago will isolate himself behind the bridge's security doors" Rapunzel continued "I've yet to see a weapon that can scratch those doors, so we'll have to disable the door's power source, which I can do myself"

"We make it to the bridge and I'll use the Red Death to kill Drago" Jack said

"Once Drago is dead, we can retrieve the Chakra" Rapunzel said. She gestured to small spherical devices being handed out to each mercenary "Use these devices to contain it".

"If you touch it, it will kill you" she warned

"I've sent a message to a member of the Western Guard, hopefully he'll believe we're there to help" Jack concluded

"Wait" Hiccup spoke up "There's one more thing we need"

He pointed to a merc in the crowd with a noticeably mechanical eyeball "I need... that guys eye!"

The mercenary eyes widened with alarm.

"No we don't" Jack snapped. He directed a calmer "We don't need your eye" at the mercenary

"No, seriously" Hiccup persisted, his barely hidden sniggers calling his bluff "It's important"

The crowd dispersed, North hanging behind. As Jack walked away, the larger man grabbed his arm.

"Just do not forget boy," he said "Who is going to get the Chakra in the end"

Jack gave him a brief nod, and North released him.

* * *

House White  
Western Kingdom

"You asked to meet with me, Officer?"

Officer Jim Hawkins turned to face the head of the western government, Snow White.

"Yes ma'am" Hawkins nodded. He drew a small voice recorder "I have recieved a message from an outlaw named Jackson Overland. You might know him as Jack Frost"

"Why have you brought this to me?" White asked

"He says that there the criminal Drago Bludvist has something called a Fire Chakra, and is coming here to destroy us. Overland's assembled an army of mercenaries and is coming to help defend the capital"

"And you believe him?" White asked sceptically

"Well, I just recently put him in jail, ma'am" Hawkins admitted "so he'd only contact me if he was serious. He admits he's, and I'm quoting him here ma'am, 'an asshole and a wanted criminal' but he's not '100% a dick'"

"Do you believe him?" White asked again

Hawkins replied with a small smile "I don't believe anyone's a complete dick ma'am"

"No, do you believe he is here to help?" White exasperatingly rephrased her question.

Hawkins nodded his head

* * *

Burgess  
Western Kingdom

High above Burgess, hundreds of ships spilled from the _Sleigh_'s hanagar. One of them was the _Crescent Moon_, being closely followed North's ship, the _Yeti_.

Inside the _Moon_ were Jack, Merida, Rapunzel and Toothless, Hiccup having being left to organise the fighters.

"This is a terrible plan" Rapunzel blurted out

"Well, you were the one who wanted to die among friends" Jack grimly said

Flying before them, was the immense shape of the _Great Black_, its descending form blocking out the sun.

"Fire!" came North's order over the radio.

Two large blasts were fired from the _Sleigh_. They never landed on the _Great_ _Black_, rather exploding into thick black clouds.

"Smokescreen is up!" North yelled "All fighters, engage!"

The fleet of ships charged skywards to the _Great Black_, skimming around the smokescreen to grant them cover.

"Hiccup hurry!" Jack called, as a group of ships broke formation to make their way inside.

The _Great Black_ was not going down without a fight however, a fleet's worth of ships spilling from its sides and belly to combat the fighters. The mercenaries broke formation and engaged.

It was chaos. All around the _Moon_, Jack could see ships being torn apart by rockets and gunfire. His skills were undoubtably put to the test as he bobbed and weaved between the explosions and enemies.

"Jack!" came Hiccup's voice "Your window's open, hurry!"

"You hear that North?" Jask asked. Upon hearing confirmation he followed with "Let's go!"

The _Moon_ and the _Yeti_ sped off the starboard hull of the _Great Black_, avoiding as much confrontation as they could. A few of Drago's jets intercepted them, the duo spilt up to counterattack.

The _Moon_ dove and fired, a ship was torn apart, the _Moon_ spun, another was reduced to burning scrap.

The _Yeti_ was not so lucky. It destroyed its pursuers, but flying shrapnel cleaved through the ships wing, and it fell spinning towards the ground.

North spat some curses in his native lanugage before alerting Jack to his fate "Jack, I have been hit! I am going down, see you when this is over!"

The _Moon_ continued its flight towards the _Great Black_, but it was blocked off by a small pack of fighters

"Hiccup!" Rapunzel called "We're not going to make it. There's too many!"

The ships pursuers were swiftly destroyed in a hail of gunfire from above. Confused, Jack looked up to see the sterile white sigil of the Western Guard.

"Jackson Overland" came an unfamiliar voice "This is Officer Aladdin Ababwa of the Western Guard. Just so we're clear, I advised against trusting you"

"They got your dick message!" Merida cried estactically

"Prove me wrong" Ababwa challenged

Powering the Moon onwards, Jack cried out "Brace yourselves!" as the ship plowed into the hole the mercenaries's ships had made into the side of the _Great Black_. The hole was too small, and the _Moon_'s wings were torn off, however the intact body of the ship sped down the hallway they had found themselves in.

Everyone held on for dear life. Even Toothless had dug his claws into the dense metal floor in sheer terror. The only one who wasn't afraid was Merida, who was whooping and cheering at the top of her lungs. Toothless stared at her, the dragon's disbelief shining clear in his eyes, worried that the strange red-haired sapien might have finally lost her mind.

The ship eventually slowed down, and the crew all gave a collective exhale of relief.

"Again! Again!" shouted Merida with childish glee.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Battle Over Burgess**

* * *

The _Great Black_

Macintosh stared at the ships screen as it registered alarms being triggered.

"We've been boarded" Macintosh reported, turning to Drago who sat impassively in his chair.

"Continue our approach" Drago ordered

"But the intruders..."

"None of it shall matter once we reach the surface"

Macintosh growled, and began snapping orders "Seal the security doors! Dagur, take a squadron of men to deal with the intruders!"

He marched out of the bridge as the doors slammed shut behind him.

* * *

Burgess

Outside the _Great Black_, the battle still raged on. Ships tore each other apart as the mothership slowly but surely descended to the city below.

Ababwa saw this. He called into his comm, "Western Guard, intiate the barrier, Drago does not land!"

Breaking away from their opponents, each and every one of the Western Guard's ships formed up into lines, energy forming between them. Within a minute every ship had formed into a giant net. They swarmed the front of the _Great Black_, immobilising it.

Drago's fighters started diving towards the city.

"Sir!" Ababwa heard a soldier call him "Drago's soldiers have started bombing the city. Do we break formation?"

Ababwa was torn, but he knew what was necessary "Negative" he answered "We cannot allow the _Black_ to make the surface!"

"Ababwa, this is Hiccup" came another voice "We'll handle the bombers. Just keep Drago in the air"

"Acknowledged" replied Ababwa. "Can't believe I'm taking orders from a four-year-old" he muttered under his breath.

About a mile below him, Hiccup and all the other mercenaries hovered above the city, their guns raised to the sky.

"All right guys" Hiccup said "Let's play some Space Invaders! Not one hits the ground"

All the fighters opened fire, Drago ships breaking into scrap and ash before they got within shooting distance of the city.

* * *

The _Great_ _Black_

Jack, Rapunzel, Merida and Toothless clambered out the _Crescent Moon_ wrecked body, their weapons at the ready.

"Christ" Merida complained "Can't see a bloody thing in this light"

Toothless gave a small amused purr and closed his eyes in concentration. His friends looked on in awe as light curled up his spine from the tip of his tail to the tip of his nose. Firey blue light emanated from his mouth and his nostrils. Within the space of a few seconds Toothless's body had lit up the entire hallway.

"Since when could he do that?" Merida exclaimed with slack-jawed amazement.

Jack gave a shrug of his shoulders "Like we'd understand the answer anyway"

The four of them continued on in silence. After a while though, Merida spoke up.

"I know that I'm not the easiest person to get along with. But I'd like to thank you for forgiving me for my cock-ups and, for being my friends"

"Jack, you're my friend" Jack muttered a "Thank you" back.

"You too, Toothless" Toothless gave a respectful nod in return.

"Even you, Blondie"

"Will you stop calling me that!" Rapunzel snapped, stopping to look at her.

"Rapunzel!" shouted a voice from in front of them. It was Macintosh.

"I'm disappointed sister" he spat "You've have always been weak. You stupid, traitorous..."

His volley of insults were cut off as Merida shot him with an arrow, the explosive attached to its head sent him flying down the hallway into the next room.

Rapunzel looked at the ginger girl in surprise.

"No one treats my friends like that" Merida flatly stated.

Rapunzel gave a quick smile, but it was soon gone as she went to business. She ran down towards the room where Macintosh went flying. "The power source is in here" She pointed down another hallway, "The bridge is that way, get to the doors and wait for the doors to open"

Jack, Merida and Toothless sprinted off the direction she had pointed as Rapunzel walked through the doors to the engine room, the yellow crackle of her electric whip lighting her way.

The blonde warrior entered the room to the grisly sight of Macintosh. His body a broken, misshapen wreck of bone and muscle. Any other person would assume that the man was instantly killed, but Rapunzel knew what Macintosh's cybernetics were capable of. She knew that such a hateful creature does not easily die.

Rushing across the room, Rapunzel pressed a few buttons on the engine control, ignoring the disgustingly disturbing sounds behind her, the crunching noise that was Macintosh's skeleton reassembling.

A green crystal cylinder emerged from the engine. Recognising it as the power supply for the Great Black's defense grid. Rapunzel swung her whip with the intent of smashing it.

Her whip collided with the blade of a sword. Macintosh's sword.

Macintosh swung the claymore sized weapon with a dangerous combination of rage and precision. Rapunzel swung her whip to parry his blows.

It was going to be a while before she destroyed the defense grid.

* * *

Burgess

Down on the ground, North was livid.

After having crawled out the ruined cockpit of his ship, with all of his dashboard knick-knacks (some of which cost a bloody fortune!) destroyed, North had to reset his shoulder and pull a few pieces of shrapnel out of his leg, all of which, while not lethal, would certainly ruin your day.

Fortunately, the _Yeti_'s custom designed cargo bay was still intact. North was currently trying to open it when he heard a voice behind him.

"Nicholas North!"

Stealthily flipping the switch to manually open the cargo bay door, North slowly turned around.

Standing before him were a small unit of Drago's soldiers, about two dozen of them. Behind the men hovered a gunship, its turrets fixed of him.

The soldier closest to him raised his crossbow and yelled "North, you will order your men to turn on the Western Guard!"

This, naturally, angered North, as he hated being threatened. The hiss of the door behind him, folowed by the snorting breath of its occupants gave him an idea.

"Moi deti..." North began in a low voice.

"I won't ask again old man, you will order the mercenaries to attack the Western Guard!"

"...kill"

With the sound of stampeding hooves nine large shaggy beasts burst from the burning wreckage of the _Yeti_, and dove into the ranks of Drago's men. The chaos that ensued would have made saner men run in terror. Soldiers wre torn limb from limb, some were impaled upon antlers, even the gunship was not safe as one of the animals leapt from the ground to and _straight through_ the cockpit window. The pilot barely had time to scream before the animal had reduced him to a punctured pincushion of the man he once was.

And as soon as it had begun, it was over. The nine genetically modified reindeer thundered back towards their master, their thick brown coats stained red with blood.

North just gave a great smile and hugged each and every one of his reindeer, the shaggy animals becoming docile once more.

Then it was carrots all around.


	17. Chapter 17

**Brawls and Blazes**

* * *

The _Great Black_

Jack, Merida and Toothless burst through a doorway into a large, open chamber, before them lying the giant impregnable doors to the bridge. Between them and it though, was a large group of soldiers.

Dagur turned towards amd with a shark-like grin, he snarled "Jack Frost"

"You remember me" Jack smirked "I'm touched"

The battle was joined.

Merida fired arrows in quick succession, killing opponents before they got within reach of her. Jack swung his ice powers about, freezing targets, sending some flying, simply batting them down with a solid thwack of his staff. Toothless on the other hand leaped into their ranks, tearing into them with teeth and claws, or burning them with well-aimed fireballs.

Jack swung a blow at Dagur, the hardened soldier dodged him and threw the lighter white-haired man over his soldier "Stupid thief" he muttered, raising his axe to finish his dioriented foe. A battle cry from behind him spurred Drago to swerve, narrowly avoided the arrow meant for his head. Merida fired a few more at Dagur and the soldiers around him. The soldiers fell, but Dagur did not. Her quiver empty, Merida charged him, swinging her bow with a yell, Dagur dodged, knocked the bow from her hands, launched her into the air, and as she hit the ground, struck her head with a roundhouse kick that sent her sprawling across the floor.

"You will never make it to Drago" the beserker growled.

Merida was swiftly back on her feet however, and took Dagur on with her bare hands. Dagur swung a punch at her head, she bobbed and weaved out of the way as the blow struck the wall, leaving an impressive dent.

Jack flew about, firing bolts of ice that froze their targets solid. A soldier knocked him onto his back, his sword raised to finish him. Jack willed wind to speed him across the floor and out of reach, freezing the soldier in return. He knocked a man down with a sweeping kick to his ankle, a swung his staff, sending the enemy flying into the open maw of the Night Fury. Toothless's powerful jaws silenced the soldier with a single snap.

A hellish scream caught Jack's attention. The source was Dagur who, in his scuffle with Merida, had had his arm broken, the bone piercing through his bare skin. Merida yanked an arrow out of a nearby corpse before pinning Dagur against the wall.

"Don't need a bow to make these deadly" she hissed, before driving the arrow into Dagur's left eye-socket.

Dagur gave an immediate and excrutiating scream before he died, the arrowhead going through into his brain. He slumped lifelessly to the floor.

"Remind me never to piss you off" Jack half-joked.

The thundering sound of boots alerted the trio to more approaching soldiers.

"Great," Jack groaned "Round two"

The men charged towards them.

Toothless however had frankly had enough. With a deafening roar, an blaze of indigo burst from his mouth like a flamethrower. Within seconds, the hallway was engulfed in flames, the soldiers burning to a crisp. Even when the soldiers had dropped dead and lay still the beam continued. Toothless had effectively, in a single breath, reduced a platoon of Drago's soldiers to ash.

When the dragon finally stopped, he turned to his friends, flashing his signature toothless smile.

Merida grinned back "You're fucking awesome!"

* * *

Behind the security doors, Drago pushed a button, and a large window opened before him.

"Burgess!" he yelled to the ships of the Western Guard, not caring whether they heard him or not "You and the Western Kingdom stand accused! Your peace treaty shall not save you!" He raised his aritificial hand, the Chakra glowing with power "It is but the tinder on which you shall burn!"

A beam on angry blood-red fire blazed from his hand, incinerating the nearest Western Guard fighter, the ships beside it exploding in a chain reaction, and the ones connected to them and the ones connected to them.

Within the space of ten seconds, Drago had single-handedly destroyed the Western Guard's fleet.

* * *

Burgess

Down below, the mercenaries were winning, but Hiccup could see several of his allies fall at the hands of Drago's fighter's kamikaze manuevers.

His radio whined "Hiccup! This is Ababwa! We can't hold him!"

Hiccup immediately grew panicked at the sound of his ally's distress "Just hold on Aladdin!" he pleaded "I'll be there to assist in..."

A cry from Ababwa's end cut him off, then silence. Not even static just, silence.

Hiccup looked up, and to his horror he could see them. The rain of fire and metal that was once the Western Guard, that was once Ababwa.

Hiccup changed channels "Jack, you need to hurry up!" he urged "The city's safe, but we're not gonna last out here!"

Jack's reply was frantic "Rapunzel hasn't opened the doors yet!"

"What's taking her?!" Hiccup demanded

* * *

The _Great Black_

Rapunzel was losing.

She hadn't kept her guard up, and now she could barely stand. Macintosh's sword had managed to slice the calf muscles in one of her legs, so she was severely handicapped. Macintosh was sporting a few electrical burns and lash-marks from where he was hit by her whip, but he was in much better shape than her, his far more advanced healing factor working faster to heal his injuries.

An explosion from outside the ship shook the room, the wall falling away to reveal the deadly drop out of the ship. Rapunzel, with her compromised balance fell flat on her, crying out in pain. Macintosh fell as well, but he got back to his feet.

Macintosh gave a disturbing smile. His sister was weak, and he was enjoying it. He was enjoying her suffering, he was going take great pleasure in killing Mor'du's favourite child.

Rapunzel forced herself to stand back on her feet, ignoring the agony in her leg. She had sparred with her brother enough times to know when he had subliminally lowered his guard.

Rapunzel struck Macintosh's face with a quick jab, and his nose broke. She swung her whip, it wrapped itself around his neck, electrocuting him along with the whip-mark. Stunned and pained, Macintosh dropped his sword, stumbling backwards.

Jumping off her one good leg, Rapunzel kicked Macintosh square in his chest, and he flew out of the hole in the wall.

Rapunzel had fallen on her back again, gritting her teeth in agony as her cybernetics slowly healed the slashed tendons in her leg.

Dragging herself back to her feet, Rapunzel stared at the power source she had almost given her life to destroy.

She brought her whip down on the source, and it shattered like glass.


	18. Chapter 18

**Fallen Friends**

* * *

The _Great Black_

Flexing the healed muscles in her leg, Rapunzel used the grenade launcher of a fallen soldier to fire at the ceiling above her. A ragged hole materialised, and she leaped through it to find herself standing in front of the bridge's security doors. Next to her was the rest of the gang.

Jack smirked at her, flashing his brilliantly white teeth "Took you long enough"

Rapunzel smiled back as the doors opened to reveal the hulking form of Drago.

Jack reacted like lightning, slinging the Red Death under his arm, he pointed the massive gun at Drago and opened fire. A giant fireball flew from the gun's barrel, hitting Drago with the explosive force of five RPGs.

A thick black cloud of smoke shrouded the bridge.

The bridge was silent.

Jack smiled, Rapunzel shoulders seemed to relax, Merida cried an elated "We did it!"

A hellish red glow ended whatever plans they had of celebrating.

The smoke cleared, to reveal that Drago was alive, unharmed. He threw his cloak back over his shoulder, the leather steaming. Of course, Jack realised, his cloak was made of dragon hide.

Drago raised his hand, the Chakra's glow growing in intensity. A beam of fire flew from his palm.

Before anyone could react, Toothless had thrown himself in front of his sapien friends, taking the brunt of the blast. The dragon was thrown back the fire, its unnatural flames burning his skin. Everyone could only look on in horror as the last of the Night Furies gave a ear-piercing cry of pain as he skidded across the floor, before crumpling into a worryingly still heap against the wall.

Merida was the first to break from the trance, charging the larger man with the intent to kill. It ended as well as one could expect. Drago grabbed the ginger-haired warrior by the neck and lifted her off her feet.

A look of realisation appeared on his face before he spoke, "I remember now" he chuckled, as Merida face scrunched up from the pain, his mechanical arm radiating enough heat that his fingers were branding her throat "You are the girl from Dunbroch. Your father was a mighty warrior" A bloodthirsty smile stretched across his face "What shame he must feel to have you for a daughter"

Outside the _Great Black_, Hiccup took the oppurtunity to fly his fighter straight through the open window of the _Black_'s bridge, the large room actually managing to accomodate the fighter's size. He fired a rocket at Drago. The large man dropped Merida, but was sent flying before he could raise his cloak to defend himself. The force of the rocket's explosion sent him flying into a wall, before falling unconscious.

Leaving the ship's controls to hover, Hiccup leaped from the side door and landed among his friends.

"We need to go" he said urgently, "Punzie's sabotage act is gonna cause this place to crash"

Rapunzel made a face that screamed "Oops" before making her way onto the ship, carrying the wounded Merida.

"Where's Toothless?" Hiccup asked

Jack didn't have to save anything, the look on his face was all Hiccup needed to start panicking.

He ran over to where Toothless lay. Hiccup couldn't fully assess his injuries in the low light, but he could third-degree burns all over the dragon's body, there was something definitely wrong with his tail, and the smell of his closest friend's cooked flesh made him want to throw up.

"Come on Toothless" Hiccup began to panic "We need to go, get up"

All Toothless could managed was a pained whimper.

"Don't talk like that!" Hiccup cried, his eyes watering "You're gonna get up. Please Toothless!" He looked back to the ship "Give me a hand here!" he cried hysterically back to the others.

Toothless gave a weak growl. "I'm not leaving you here" Hiccup argued. Toothless growled more assertively "No! You're not gonna die bud! You're not! I won't let you! Now get up!"

Toothless snorted a small burst of fire from his nosrtils, the flames narrowly avoiding Hiccup's feet. He stared at his small friend. Hiccup could see the barely concealed agony in those acid-green orbs, but there was something other than pain, a command.

_Go_

Hiccup shook his head. "No" was all he said.

Toothless looked over Hiccup's shoulder and gave a weak nod to something behind him. Jack threw his arms around Hiccup's scrawny frame in a tight grapple. The taller white-haired man dragged Hiccup back to the ship, the younger boy kicking and flailing and screaming and cursing.

Toothless gave a quiet growl after him.

_Goodbye, Fishbone_

The Night Fury kept his gaze on that ship as it rose and flew out from the hole from which it had entered. He watched the ship fly out of sight.

Without so much as a sound, Toothless closed his eyes, and curled up as the Great Black crashed around him.


	19. Chapter 19

**One Final Stand**

* * *

Burgess  
Western Kingdom

Jack released Hiccup, who in turn broke his nose.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Hiccup hysterically demanded

"Hiccup, there was no way we could save him" Rapunzel said softly

"You don't know that!" Hiccup snapped at her, tears falling down his face, "None of you know that!" He turned to look at Jack "You can use the wind to make yourself fly! You could have lifted him into the ship!"

"He's a 500lb dragon Hiccup!" Jack argued, trying to keep his voice level "There's no way I could have done that"

"YOU COULD HAVE TRIED!" Hiccup screamed.

His energy spent, Hiccup fell to floor, curled into a ball, and wept, utterly broken.

"I'm sorry Hiccup" Jack said in a gentle voice, laying a hand on Hiccup's shoulder in an attempt to console him.

"Jack" Rapunzel quietly spoke up, Jack rose to face her, "The _Great Black_'s crashed, we need to land to retrieve the Chakra"

Jack gave another look at Hiccup's fetal shape, quietly sobbing, and turned back to Rapunzel "Okay" he sighed

The ship landed.

The four exited the craft, and gazed around at the wreckage surrounding them. A small crowd of civilians had approached to look as well.

"Spread out" Jack calmly ordered "Find the Chakra"

The team split up the find the gem, but Hiccup found something else, some_one_ else.

He found Toothless.

The dragon's body was intact, but motionless. His eyes closed. The ugly bright colours of his burns, red, pink, white, covering his body were all too easy to see in the daylight.

Hiccup fell to his knees, and placed a hand upon his friend's singed skin. His scales were still warm, and if it weren't for the burns or the fact that Toothless wasn't breathing, Hiccup could've pretented that he was asleep, that he would soon awake, maybe cuff him for waking him up, call him a fishbone, ask for his breakfast.

Fresh tears rolled down the boy's face as he grieved for his friend.

"Hey guys!" he heard Merida call out "I've found..."

Merida never finished her sentence as a chunk of charred metal was thrown at her, knocking her down. The three turned to see the Chakra's hellish light approach them.

Drago was still alive.

The monstrous man raised his arm, and a beam of red blew up the ship behind the heroes, the explosion sending them flying.

Hiccup glared at Drago, his eyes, red from crying, were full of one single emotion, rage.

The small boy charged the larger man, flaming sword in hand, yelling "You killed Toothless!"

Drago didn't even look at him, he just knocked Hiccup flat on his back with an open palmed blow to his head.

Drago turned to face the crowd, his eyes alight with madness and triumph. "People of Burgess!" he yelled. He made a wave with his arm to gesture the four people he had just subdued "Behold your guardians! Your last line of defence!" he jeered "They have failed you! And now, my fallen comrades shall have their justice! Burgess! (Fire glowed in his palm) The time has come to pay for your sins!"

Before he began however, something cold hit him in the back of the head. Turning around to face his attacker, Drago saw that the white-haired boy has risen to his feet, and was bouncing a snowball in his hand.

"What are you doing?" Drago confusedly demanded to know.

"Drago Bludvist!" Jack yelled in a comically loud and dramatic voice "I, Jack Frost, challenge you... to a snowball fight!"

The confused look on Drago's was priceless "What?"

"Come on" Jack urged excitedly. He waved his staff, and several snowballs appeared at Drago's feet. "Let's go!" He threw another snowball, this one hitting Drago in the face. This knocked the soldier back into a rage.

"What are you doing?!" he roared

"Isn't it obvious?" Jack replied "I'm distracting you!"

Just out of Drago's field of vision, Merida had gotten to her feet and, with Hiccup's help, reassembled the Red Death and opened fire.

The shot hit Drago in his metal arm, destroying the prosthetic. The Chakra fell.

Jack instictively reached out to grab it. He caught it, and immediately regretted it.

His entire body flared up with burning agony, as if a fire was burning him from the inside out. Clutchuing the Chakra, Jack screamed in absolute distress, the pain was unbearable.

He could barely register the fireballs flying out uncontrollably from his hand, the heat waves emanating from the Chakra

"Jack!" came a yell, avoice he could barely hear, it was Rapunzel. "Grab my hand!"

Suddenly, in his pain-wracked delirium, Jack was no longer there.

He was back in a place he thought he'd never return to: the lake where North found him.

He could see himself he realised. He saw himself, maybe five years younger, standing in the centre of a frozen lake, cracks forming at his bare feet, ice skates lay discarded beside him.

"Jack" came a quiet voice. Jack saw the shape of a young girl, brown hair and brown eyes, standing on the ice as well, her face etched with frantic worry.

_Sister_, the word suddenly came to him. Jack was shocked. Did he have a sister?

"Jack" the girl spoke again, reaching out with her hand "Grab my hand"

The younger Jack shook his head "No, the ice is too thin" he said

The girl shuffled closer, and the boy eyes went wide and outstretched his hand "Stay there! The ice could break at any moment!"

"Jack..." the girl whimpered, tears in her eyes.

"It's okay Emma" Young Jack reassured her (Her name was Emma!) "I'm gonna be fine. It's going to be okay"

"No it's not" Emma cried

"Would I trick you?" the boy asked

"Yes! You always play tricks"

Young Jack gave a small laugh at the comment "Fair enough. But not today"

He looked down at his feet, then back to Emma "Don't you move" he said, his voice serious again "I'm going to come towards you"

He slid a foot foward, wincing as the cracks on the ice multiplied. Slowly, he edged towards his sister, before shoving her away as the ice broke completely and he fell into the icy waters.

"JACK!" Emma screamed.

She screamed again, but it wasn't the voice of a little girl, it was an older, more familiar voice. Rapunzel.

Jack snapped back to reality, staring at Rapunzel's outstretched hand.

"Take my hand!" she called over the roar of fire.

Jack gave her his hand.

She held on, but she recoiled in agony as pain wracked her body. She vaguely felt someone take her other hand. She looked over to see Merida standing beside her, her expression grimacing in the pain that Rapunzel knew she must be feeling. Burns were forming on her pale, freckled face.

Jack watched as Hiccup reached and grabbed his arm, the smaller boy crying out as he helped take the Chakra's burden.

Then, the fires stopped. The four gave collectively exhaled in relief as the pain subsided. All four of them turned to look at Drago, his face a mask of disbelief and horror.

"But... But you are mortal!" he shouted "How?!"

Jack narrowed his eyes at Drago "Well, bitch. We're guardians"

He raised his hand, and the Chakra fired a beam at Drago, hitting him square in the chest. Drago gave an unearthly scream as he burst into flames, and he was slowly disintegrated.

Using his free hand, Hiccup covered the Chakra with his semi-spherical device. A sphere formed around the gem, and everything stopped.

Jack held the containment orb in his hand, trying to regain his breath, his burns stinging in the breeze. Rapunzel put a hand on his shoulder to support her weight. Jack in turn did the same. The two shared each others gaze. Jack flashed a warm smile at her, eliciting a small smile in return.

"Well", came a voice from the crowd. North. "That was interesting" He walked through the crowd, his reindeer forming space for him.

He reached out an open hand "Let us not forget Jack, we have business to do before you can embrace your lady-friend"

Jack's arm dropped his arm from Rapunzel's shoulder, his own shoulders sagged, he spoke with obvious tiredness "You can't be serious North. You just saw what this thing is capable of. Whoever you're going to sell it to, will get us all killed. We need to give it to the Western Guard"

North shook his head "Do not mistake me for a saint, my boy. You know that I am not one" One of his reindeer gave a threatening snort "The Chakra, now"

Jack stared at him for a few seconds, before placing the sphere in his hand. Smiling, North whistled a command to his reindeer and the ten of them left.

Jack waited till he was out of earshot before saying "He's going to be pissed when he finds out I gave him the wrong one"

Rapunzel smiled at him, and kissed him on the cheek. "You made the right choice"

"Yeah" Jack seemed distracted "I have a sister" he blurted out.

Rapunzel looked at him in confusion. "I had amnesia" Jack explained "I couldn't remember anything before North took me under his wing. I had a sister, a little sister. I saved her"

Rapunzel put a hand on his shoulder "We'll find her when all of this is over" she promised

Jack smiled in gratitude.

Meanwhile, Hiccup had returned to Toothless's side. He sat there, quietly sniffling as Merida came to side beside him. The older girl wrapped an arm around him.

Hiccup immediately tensed up, but relaxed as Merida drew him into a hug. Merida just held him there, holding him as Hiccup started crying again. He hugged her tightly, and they just sat there, silent, apart from Hiccup as he sobbed into her shoulder.


	20. Chapter 20

**The End**

* * *

The _Sleigh  
_Unconfirmed Territory

"Well, I guess the little tyke turned out all right in the end" Aster admitted.

Aster and North were reclining in the captain's quarters, passing a bottle of vodka between them.

Aster took a sip "Christ, this stuff burns" he coughed, passing it to his friend, who took a swig like it was water.

"You ever regret not giving the kid to his dad like we were hired to?" Aster asked

"Not for a moment" North answered "That man was an ass"

Placing the bottle down at his feet, North picked up the containment orb that Jack had given him.

"You know, I still haven't looked inside to see if it is genuine" he admitted

"I thought the kid said if you looked at it too long, it'll drive you mad" Aster reminded him

"Do you think me weak minded?" North asked, raising a bushy eyebrow.

Aster pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

North opened the orb. Inside it was not a Chakra, but a small christmas elf figurine.

Aster's face went from confused to shock to anger in a matter of seconds "That little bastard conned us!" he shouted.

North wasn't angry, he wasn't his usual stoic self. He was laughing.

"Boss?" Aster asked uncertainly, afraid that the leader had had a little too much to drink.

North stopped laughing. Wiping a tear from his eye, he smiled.

"That's my boy"

* * *

Burgess  
Western Kingdom

"How do you even know this" Jack asked

He was sitting a hospital ward, being spoken to by a young woman named Dr. Forrester.

"We ran your blood when we were fixing you up" the woman explained.

"So I'm not sapien" Jack clarified

"Well... yes and no" the doctor answered "You definitely have sapien DNA in your system, probably inherited from your mom if your memory's right. But you've inherited DNA from another species, probably your dad, it's just, I've never seen a lifeform like it"

"Any ideas?"

"Well, judging from your pale complexion and white hair, it says on your file it's leucism, but I think they're traits from some kind of winter being"

"Explains your powers over snow and the wind" Rapunzel said, sitting not far from his side.

"Mr. Overland. Miss Rapunzel" came a voice from the doorway, it was the head of government, Snow White.

"It's good to see you both alive" she said with a smile "On behalf of the people of Burgess and the Western Kingdom, I would like to express our immense gratitude for your bravery and selflessness" she added with a small bow.

Jack gave a nonchalant wave of his hand "It was nothing"

"I'll send Officer Hawkins to collect you" said White. She turned to Dr. Forrester "Providing your doctor is satisfied with your condition"

The doctor shrugged her shoulders in response "They're good to go"

White nodded and left the room.

* * *

Hiccup sat by the edge of Toothless's bed.

The dragon had been declared dead for half an hour. Afterwards however the doctors were amazed to find that the Night Fury's heart had started beating again. They had immediately seen to his burns, treating the worst, leaving the lesser ones to heal on their own surprisingly quick time. They couldn't save his tail though. The doctors were forced to amputate his left tail-fin.

They had left about an hour ago, saying that all the dragon now needed was rest, but Hiccup refused to leave his friends side. He wanted to be there when his closest friend woke up.

Merida had decided to sit in with him as well. She had fallen asleep twenty minutes ago, sprawled out in a chair. If Hiccup had to be honest, he had to admit the ginger-haired madwoman was growing on him, in more ways than one, but he wasn't too sure how to deal with complicated emotions like that yet.

The government lady, Snow something, had visited, wanting to express how thankful she is, bla-de-blah-de-blah, but for Hiccup their win was hollow, it would stay hollow until he could look Toothless in the eye again.

Hiccup had nodded off but was awoken to the sound of whining growls.

_Where's my breakfast? I'm hungry!_

Hiccup rubbed the sleep from his eyes to see the large shape of Toothless, his bright green eyes shining with mirth.

_Morning, Fishbone_

Hiccup sprung from his chair to hug his beastly friend, before slapping him across the nose. Toothless gave him an irritated grunt, his head tilting in confusion.

"You scared me!" Hiccup said, his voice louder than he had expected it to be "I though your were dead!" He threw his arms around Toothless's neck again, tears forming in his eyes "Don't scare me like that"

Toothless affectionately nudged the boy with his head.

_I'm not going anywhere, Hiccup_

The dragon looked at his tail, and he gave off a rumbling growl akin to that of chuckling

_I guess we match now_

"I make you something so you can fly again" Hiccup promised.

This rewarded him a giant lick across the face.

"Ugh! You know that doesn't wash out!" Hiccup exclaimed, trying and failing to be serious.

The two embraced. Both creatures, one of a kind: a vat-grown vivisection experiment and the last of the Night Furies. They might not have anyone like them in the world, but at least they had each other.

Who said true brothers had to be related.

* * *

Officer Hawkins had arrived to collect Jack and Rapunzel, and as he escorted them they had ran into Merida, Hiccup and Toothless, the latter being carried via a forklift.

Rapunzel slowed down so that she was walking alongside Merida "May your family rest in peace knowing you have avenged them" she said

The taller girl looked at her "Thank you" flashing a rare smile.

"Of course," she continued "Drago was only a puppet. If I want justice, I'll have to kill Mor'du"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes"Good luck with that" she smiled

Hawkins led them outside, where an they saw an almost identical model of the _Crescent Moon_ awaiting them.

"We tried to keep it close to the original" Hawkins spoke "Everything we managed to salvage you'll find inside"

Jack shook the Officer's hand "Thank you"

Hawkins smiled back "I have a family, here in Burgess. They're alive because of you, so thank _you_"

He looked at all the others "We've also expunged all your criminal records but, we still warn you not to commit any crimes in the future"

"Question" Hiccup spoke up "What if I take something, and it just happens to belong to someone else?"

"That would be illegal" Hawkins answered

"But what if I wanted it more than the owner wanted it?"

"It's still illegal"

"No, that doesn't compute. I want it more sir, understand?"

Rapunzel led him away, trying not to laugh

"What's so funny?" Hiccup seemed genuinely confused "Why are you laughing?"

Merida also asked a question "What if someone pisses me off, and I just decide to stab him in the heart"

Hawkins was so shocked by the question that it took him a while to formulate an answer "Well, that's murder, one of the worst crimes one can commit, so yeah, very illegal"

Merida "Hmmed" in response, and walked onto the _Moon_.

Jack patted Hawkins on the shoulder "I'll keep an eye on them" Hawkins raised his eyebrows in response "That doesn't make you feel better does it?"

* * *

The _Crescent Moon II_   
Unconfirmed Territory

Jack sat in his own quarters, sitting on the edge of his bed, a piece of paper in his hand.

When he was in the hospital, he had managed to convince someone to run Emma Overland through the Western Guard's database. Finding only one identity with that name, Jack had written a letter out to her address. To say that Emma was overjoyed would have been an understatement, she came to visit with her father. Jack didn't tell them much about the past five years, only that he was saved by a man who took him under his wing as he had recovered with amnesia. They had talked for hours until she had to leave.

As he was leaving Burgess, he recieved another letter from his sister:

Dear Jack,  
I'll admit it was weird seeing you alive again. I mean, I had mourned you, I went to your funeral. Mom kept telling me not to worry, that you were 'With your father' but that never gave me real comfort. She died though, Mom, a couple years after you supposedly died. Cancer, it was.  
To be honest, I always blamed myself for what happened to you, I blamed myself for a long time. Then I hated you, for leaving me. I realise how stupid that sounds but I did, and I'm sorry. You saved, protected me, just like you always did. I don't know how much you remember, but I was always getting myself into trouble, and you were always there to help me, and vice versa.  
So thank you, for being my guardian.  
Your sister,  
Emma

Folding the letter up, Jack pulled out a blue shoebox from one of the drawers. Opening it up, its contents were a broken piece of a reindeer's antler, an snow globe that North gave him on his 19th birthday, a pencil sketch of the original _Crescent Moon_, a necklace that he had bought for Tooth, but she had given back to him, and small blank CD.

He put the letter in the box, but before he closed it he heard a voice from behind him "What are they?"

It was Rapunzel.

"Hey, I didn't hear you come in" Jack sighed

Rapunzel came and sat down next to Jack "They're memories" he answered.

"When I had amnesia, I obviously didn't know how I lost my memories so, I kept small trinkets from things I liked to remember"

Rapunzel picked the CD out of the shoebox "What's this?"

"It's music" Jack answered. Taking the CD from her hand, he placed it in a nearby CD-player. Almost instantly, the room was filled with the sounds of musical instruments and single soulful sound alto singer.

"I remember my mom saying something about me having 'an old soul' whatever that meant" Jack said

Rapunzel had to admit that the music wasn't that bad. Unconsiously she found herself swaying with the music. Jack smiled at her as he saw it.

Walking up to her, Jack took one of Rapunzel's hands in his and the two were soon swaying together.

The music changed. It was slower now.

Without really realising it, Jack let go of Rapunzel's hand and moved closer, wrapping his hands around the curve of her back.

Rapunzel didn't violently lash out like last time, however, rather gave a unusually shy smile, and put her arms around Jack's neck.

"You know, Rapunzel" Jack said "I know you don't like the fact that I play around a lot, but if... I don't know, you wanted something more, I'd be willing to change"

Rapunzel sighed "Jack..."

Jack spoke again "I mean, I'd understand if you didn't want anything to happen between us, I mean, I'm not exactly a good guy, I'm a bit of an ass, I steal a lot, I've killed people, I'm a bit strange to look at but..."

Rapunzel shut him up with a kiss. It was just a quick peck, but it was on Jack's lips, so his brain short-circuited a bit.

"Jack" Rapunzel began "You are an honourable man, whether you deny it or not, you're funny, intelligent and dare I say, handsome. My only problem is that you just. won't. shut up"

Jack smiled back at her, and gave her a light kiss on the forehead.

"I'm glad you're here Blondie"

"Me too"

* * *

The original Crescent Moon was home to a thief, a thug and his dragon, an assassin and a maniac. Now, well, they were still a thief, thug, assassin and maniac. But at least they had rules now.

They were Guardians. They would travel the world, saving and helping those in need, they would protect the world from evil forces and they put criminals to justice.

But hey, what's life without doing something bad as well.

Good, bad and a bit of both. That was the life of a guardian.

* * *

**Authors Note**

Aaaaaaaaaand that's all folks!

I just wanted to thank all the people for giving this story 2500+ views. Thank you, I love you all.

Also, leave any praise and constructive criticism you have. I always love a bit of input for future projects


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